


The Last Hero of Eternia

by Reeny_Chan



Series: One Last Road Trip - a She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Series [6]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Child Abuse, Cover Art, Entrapdak, Epic Battles, F/F, F/M, Humor, POV Adora (She-Ra), POV Catra (She-Ra), POV Glimmer (She-Ra), Post-Finale, Queen Glimmer (She-Ra), Sapphic, Scorfuma, The First Ones (She-Ra), catradora
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:28:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 34,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28398465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reeny_Chan/pseuds/Reeny_Chan
Summary: Months after the end of the war with Horde Prime, a new entity has awakened and found its way to Etheria. But is this entity friend, foe...or something else?
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra)
Series: One Last Road Trip - a She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Series [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2029408
Comments: 17
Kudos: 29





	1. Priority One

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there! For those of you who have been reading my series “One Last Road Trip”, this is where things finally begin to pay off!
> 
> If this is my first fic you’re reading, may I suggest you first go back and read my first five fics in the series:
> 
> One More Best Friends Squad Road Trip  
> The Chair with a Hole in the Back  
> Old Wounds  
> When the Cat’s Away  
> Technicalities
> 
> These serve as a prologue of sorts for this story, with some post-series world-building and showing us what many of our favorite characters have been up to since Horde Prime’s defeat. As always, thanks for reading!

Cover art by [wingedcorgi](https://wingedcorgi.tumblr.com/)

“The smoke ends there,” Adora said, pointing to the smoke trail lingering in the sky above them. Riding atop Swift Wind, she had already changed into She-Ra. Behind her, clutching tightly onto Adora’s waist with one hand and a pair of binoculars with the other, Catra was scanning the horizon in front of them.

“Hard to tell where the ship went,” Catra said. “The trees are all moving everywhere I can see.”

“Yeah, that’s normal for the Whispering Woods,” Adora said. “Hopefully that works out for us in the end, if that ship ended up landing somewhere inside.”

For a day that had started out with Adora and Catra visiting Dryl to see the repairs Entrapta and Hordak had made to their First Ones spaceship, it had taken quite a turn. The sudden sight of a streak of fire overhead, streaming from the skies of Dryl toward the Whispering Woods and Bright Moon, had surprised them all, though none more than Adora. Seeing it, feeling what was in it, gave her an intense sense of dread. Not since her first confrontation with Horde Prime had she felt like this.

It was the first truly eventful thing that had happened since the end of the war, but as far as Adora was concerned, she’d have been happier if it had stayed away for a few more months. Or years. They all deserved a lot more time to enjoy the peace.

“I can still feel it ahead of us,” Swift Wind said. “I should be able to home in on it.”

Adora could feel it as well, though how Swift Wind was able to actually pinpoint its direction from this distance, she wasn’t sure. Was she distracted, or was it just some kind of “horse sense” that her trusty pegacorn friend had?

“Got it!” Swift Wind said. “I think, anyway. Hold on!”

“No, wait!” Catra shouted. “No more dives!” 

“What?” Swift Wind said. “I can’t hear you!”

Catra growled, let the binoculars slip from her hand to sway by the strap around her neck, and clutched Adora’s waist with both hands, claws instinctively digging into her armor. Just in time, too, as at that same moment Swift Wind drew his wings back and stretched his head forward, and the three of them shot forward and down in a steep arc. 

Catra’s teeth were clenched, her eyes wide, and her fur standing on end all about her body. “Is it too late to go with Entrapta and Hordak instead?” she shouted over the wind rushing past them.

Any other time, Adora would have smiled at the banter, or at least enjoyed the thrill of Swift Wind’s “stunt” flying. This time, whatever they were chasing gave her a deep, dark stone in the pit of her stomach. It was a feeling...like there was something important she was meant to have done, but had forgotten. It made no sense to her, but that was the closest she could explain it.

“I hate you, horse!” Catra cried.

The words snapped Adora’s attention from her own trepidation, and she put a hand on top of Catra’s. Her lover’s tendons were tight as bowstrings. “It’s okay, I’ve got you!”

“You’re not the one I’m worried about!”

Swift Wing finally leveled out their flight just above the treeline, expertly dodging the occasional limb that stuck itself up and tried to disrupt his flight. He laughed out loud.

Catra gagged, paused, and then swallowed. “Don’t you _ever_ do that again!” she shouted.

Adora spotted something in the distance, off to the right. “There!” she said, pointing with her free hand. “There’s something rising there, like steam or something. I think - whatever it is I’m feeling’s coming from there.”

“Hold on!” Swift Wind banked steeply. Catra cried out again and clutched Adora even more tightly, her claws digging painfully into Adora’s sides. Only the increased tolerance for pain her powers afforded her let her endure it without yelping out.

Swift Wind returned to level flight shortly afterward and continued on a straight path, aside from dodging more trees that were attempting to knock them out of the air. 

Catra finally loosened her death-grip on Adora, freed one hand to grab up the binoculars, and started scanning ahead. “I think I see a clearing,” she said, her voice hoarse. She pointed just to the left of their heading. “Around that steam.”

“That’s our guy!” Swift Wind said. “I’m sure of it!”

“Set down just ahead of it,” Adora said. “If we drop on top of them they’ll see us for sure.” _Come on, Woods,_ Adora added in her thoughts. _Give us a way in please._

“Right,” Swift Wind said. As he said that, the tree limbs beneath them began to part, giving him a perfect corridor to descend toward the forest floor. He glided below the tree line, keeping a sharp eye out for any errant limbs, following this new path that the forest seemed to be making for them. 

Once his hoofs were finally on the ground and he’d cantered to a halt, Catra jumped off him. “I...am NEVER...flying with him again!” she gasped, pointing an accusatory finger at Swift Wind while clutching her stomach. She was trying as hard as she could to keep her stomach’s contents where they were.

“Oh please,” Swift Wind said. “You’re just afraid of riding in style!”

“That wasn’t style, it-!”

“Quiet!” Adora interrupted, climbing off Swift Wind’s back. “We don’t want them hearing us!” She hooked a thumb over her shoulder. “It was this way.”

Catra took another moment to catch her breath and then started following Adora and Swift Wind through a narrow path between the tree trunks. Her stomach finally settled down, and as she glanced at Swift Wind she hurled several filthy mental curses his way. She would take a Horde skiff any day over a pegacorn with an apparent death wish.

Adora’s eyes and ears, enhanced by her powers, were focused on the path ahead. _Okay, Woods, where’s that ship?_ She had gotten quite good at getting the forest to trust her these past couple years, and most of the time it led her right where she needed to go without protest. She often talked to it when trying to navigate, though she wasn’t certain whether or not it actually helped.

It didn’t seem to hurt things, at least. Just ahead, she could see the midday sunlight starting to peek through a break in the trees. Adora glanced back at Swift Wind and Catra, and then pointed two fingers toward the light. Both nodded, and continued creeping behind her.

A twig snapped. They all stopped dead in their tracks. Adora and Catra looked at each other, and then back to Swift Wind. The pegacorn was giving them a sheepish look. “Sorry,” he whispered.

Adora pointed to Swift Wind, then to the ground, mouthing, “Stay there.” Swift Wind nodded, a look of shame on his face. She then turned to Catra. She pointed toward the upper limbs of some trees to their left and gave a hand signal that she and Catra both knew from their old Horde days as “Watch my back”.

Catra nodded and then leapt up into the trees, making her way gracefully and silently to the position Adora had specified. Once there, she kept her eyes glued to Adora.

Adora turned back to the break in the trees. She then looked down at herself, noticing the slight glow from her own body. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, and her She-Ra form dissolved away. Now a smaller target and less likely to be spotted, she crept up to one of the smaller breaks in the trees, one just large enough for her to peer through without risking making herself too visible. She crouched down and got as comfortable as she could.

The sunlight was a bit glaring after having been in the shade of the dense forest canopy, but once her eyes adjusted she could see it. Entrapta was right, it _did_ look like a First Ones ship. It was a bit larger than Darla and the shape was a bit less blocky, a bit sleeker, but the basic form was unmistakable. Steam was rising from some of its seams, and the grass around it was charred, rivulets of smoke still rising in places. She could see places where the ship was smeared with various types of plant matter. The Woods must have put up quite a fight to keep this thing from landing. She tried not taking that as a bad sign, given how hostile the Woods tended to be with outsiders in general, but this time she was sure that the Woods, Iike she and Swift Wind, could tell that this ship’s occupants were bad news.

She saw a figure step out from behind the ship, and put a hand over her mouth to keep from gasping. 

It was another She-Ra!

It wasn’t an identical copy of Adora’s She-Ra form. This one was much taller than her, with very bulky arms and legs, and short spiky blonde hair sticking up from above a wide golden headband. The headband was very similar to the tiara from Adora’s older She-Ra form, though the wings at the temples were smaller, with fewer curves and sharper edges.

The boots were heavier as well, looking more like flat-heeled, heavy combat boots similar in style to the ones Horde soldiers used to wear. The leggings were skintight, showing off every curve of the highly-defined muscles, and did not include the skirt that was part of Adora and Mara’s forms. It also lacked the white-and-red cape.

The golden emblem on the figure’s chest, however, appeared identical to the one on Adora’s own. It was a more utilitarian outfit than Adora’s own, but _like_ Adora’s own, it did not appear to have been meant for stealth.

The other She-Ra seemed to be stalking the edges of the clearing. She watched as the figure stepped into the shadows between the trees in one area, but then a minute or so later, stepped out from a different one. 

The other She-Ra tapped their ear. “Last Resort,” they said in a deep, slightly echoing voice, “Analysis. What is preventing me from leaving this clearing?”

The response must have been coming to their earpiece, because she only heard the She-Ra reply, “Do you have last known telemetry for the objective based on our last known position?”

A few seconds later they shook their head. “Dammit.” After a pause - “Understood. Out.” They tapped the earpiece again. “‘Unhelpful speech’,” they said in a mocking tone. “Like _you’ve_ been any help since we got to this backwater planet.”

Adora glanced up to where Catra was perched. Catra was scanning the clearing back and forth. Adora whistled three times, imitating a bird as per her training. That caught Catra’s attention. She raised her eyebrows.

Adora sent a hand signal. _I’m going in_.

Catra tilted her head, and then signaled back. _Confirm last_. In this context, Adora knew it to mean, “Are you sure?”

Adora re-signed _I’m going in_.

After a moment Catra nodded and pointed to her eyes. _I have eyes on you_.

Adora nodded. She stood, took a deep breath, and stepped out into the clearing.

The other She-Ra spotted her almost instantly. “Halt!” They rushed toward her. A sword materialized in their hand and they pointed it straight at her. 

Adora raised her hands. “Uh, hi. My, um - my name is Adora. Who are you?”

The other She-Ra stood still, watching her but also glancing from side to side, as if expecting an ambush. “Leave here, local. My business doesn’t concern you.”

“W- _I_ followed you in,” Adora said. “Your ship looked like it was on fire. I’m willing to help if you’ll let me.”

The other She-Ra spent another moment assessing Adora, and then glancing left and right. They relaxed their stance ever so slightly, though the sword remained in their hand. “Very well. I am Prince Adam, She-Ra of Eternia and heir to the Throne of D’Vann.”

“It’s - nice to meet you, Adam.”

“ _Prince_ Adam.”

“Right, _Prince_ Adam,” Adora said. She slowly lowered her hands, though she made sure to keep them visible at her sides. “You said...you said you’re from Eternia? Eternia’s a place?”

Adam’s eyes narrowed. “Eternia is a _planet_ . The home planet of the Eternian Empire. The empire that rules the known galaxies. Including _this_ one. _This_ planet.”

Eternia. She finally understood what it meant. And this person was from there. He was a First One. All the questions she had, all the disjointed fragments of her past, swirled about her mind.

She noticed Adam staring at her. “Eternian Empire, huh?” she said. “We, um, call them the First Ones.”

“Quaint,” Adam said. “I need to find a way out of this clearing. For some reason I keep trying to leave but it keeps bringing me right back here.”

“Well, this place - the Whispering Woods - it’s kind of...weird. They kind of shift around and only send you where they want you to go. If they don’t want you going anywhere, they won’t let you.”

Adam shook his head. “Blasted magic planets,” he muttered. He relaxed from his stance and stood straight. His sword vanished from his hand, which caught Adora’s attention. “Listen, I need to get to a place called the Crystal Castle. It’s an Eternian fortress somewhere in this forest. Can you help me get there or not?”

Adora paused, her face growing suddenly warm. There were three whistles from the trees behind her. She knew Catra was trying to get her attention, but she couldn’t look away. She couldn’t give away Catra’s position. “I - I, um…yes, I could help you get there!”

“Adora, wait!” That was Swift Wind’s voice coming from the forest behind her.

Adam’s sword immediately reappeared in his hand and he charged past Adora, shoving her so hard she went flying. “Come out! Now!”

Adora hit the ground hard but used the momentum to roll into a crouching position. “Dammit Swift Wind,” she muttered.

Adam rushed toward the clearing’s edge, near where Adora had emerged, and swiped with his sword. He took out two smaller trees with one move, though instead of falling, the trees hung suspended, their upper limbs entangled with those of other adjacent trees. He pushed the two trees aside, examining the darkness beyond.

While he was distracted, a figure dropped out of the air and landed hard on Adam’s head. As he reeled and reached up for her, Catra swiped at his arm, causing his grip on the sword to falter. She then leapt off, placing herself on the grass between Adam and Adora. She crouched, back arched, and hissed angrily with bared teeth.

Adam spun around, re-firmed his grip on his sword, and reared back to charge. Adora stood, and put her hands up again. “No, please!” she said.

“He attacked you!” Catra said.

“I’m okay,” Adora said. She turned to Adam. “Please, this is my friend, Catra. We’re not here to fight you!”

Adam launched himself at them, much faster than his bulk would seem to have allowed. Adora and Catra glanced at each other, and then leapt away in opposite directions. Adam swiped his sword in a large arc, but both women had managed to get just outside its reach.

“Stop!” Adora said. “Please listen!”

Adam did not answer. He only glanced her way, and then turned toward Catra, the more obvious threat of the two. As he began to pursue her she leaped and flipped away repeatedly. He’d managed to position himself between her and the trees, so she went for the next best cover nearby - his ship. 

“Dammit!” Adora summoned her sword to her hand and raised it over her head. “For the honor of Grayskull!”

While Adora transformed, Catra continued backing off, doing her best to keep away from the razor-sharp blade being swung at her with seeming abandon. Part of her regretted having so quickly jumped in and going after this She-Ra impostor, but she couldn’t sit by and do nothing after he’d thrown Adora like some kind of rag doll.

With one large leap she flipped through the air and landed on all fours on top of Adam’s ship. It gave her some extra distance from the charging brute, but she knew better than to underestimate an opponent. Especially not one with a magical sword and a golden tiara.

She never had the opportunity to plan her next move. _“Intruder detected,”_ an electronic voice called out. She felt the surface of the ship grip her hands and feet, and her world exploded into pain as electricity arced across it and into her. She couldn’t move, every muscle in her body tightening at once. It felt like she’d been hit with a Horde stun baton, but much more intense.

The electric arcing on the ship’s hull stopped. Her muscles randomly seized, spasmed, and then went limp. She was unable to stop herself from tumbling to the ground, landing on her back just in front of Adam. Her body continued twitching uncontrollably.

Adam stood firm, pointing his sword directly at her, its tip inches away from piercing through her eye. Catra widened her eyes, her eyelids the only muscles she could move voluntarily, and stared at the point of the blade that was about to end her.

That end didn’t happen. A flash of white, a _clang_ of metal, and Adam was no longer in front of her. She saw the backs of Adora’s boots, the winged wedge heels a very welcome sight.

Adora’s strike had knocked the sword out of Adam’s hand and sent it flying over the ship, and she had then kicked him hard in the jaw, knocking him a dozen feet away. While keeping her gaze firmly on Adam, Adora said, “Catra, are you okay?”

“Nnngh,” was all Catra could manage, her jaw refusing to cooperate and her tongue completely numb. She tried to move her arms and legs, but they felt as if they were pinned by tremendous weights.

Adam recovered enough from Adora’s strike to get back to his feet. He held his hand out, and his sword disappeared from where it had landed and then reappeared in his grip. “ _You_ ,” he said. “You’re no local!”

“I am She-Ra,” Adora said. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I will protect my friends and my world. Don’t make me fight you.”

“Your world,” Adam said. “You sound just like Mara, but you can’t be her.” He relaxed his stance, but only slightly. “You’re the experiment.”

Adora stared at him. “Experiment?”

“After Mara failed, there was another one sent. One who was supposed to finish the job. That one also failed. Or hasn’t yet succeeded.” He stood at attention. “Soldier, as a member of the royal family of Eternia, I order you to help me complete your mission. First priority is to contact the Light Hope OS in the Crystal Castle.”

“Why should I help you?” Adora said, maintaining her defensive posture. “You tried to kill my friend!”

Adam looked down his nose at Catra. “You were sent here to fulfill your mission, not to befriend the locals.”

“Keep talking like that,” Adora said. “You’re only making me angrier.”

Adam’s nostrils flared. He stared at Adora for a long moment, but finally said, “Why did you fail your mission?”

“Nope,” Adora said. “You don’t get to ask the questions. I do.”

Adam’s jaw twitched. He glanced toward the ship, then toward the trees nearby, and then back to Adora. “Very well. I will answer your questions. If you escort me to the Crystal Castle.”

“Adora…” Catra said. Adora glanced back to see her standing up on unsteady legs. She offered her hand, which Catra accepted. 

Once she was standing Adora placed an arm around her. “You okay?” 

Catra was trembling. “Y-yeah,” she said. “Just...one hell of a shock.”

They touched foreheads briefly. Then Adora turned back to Adam, her eyes narrowed and jaw set. “Fine, I will help you get to the Crystal Castle, but not because you’re ordering it. And if you hurt any of my friends again, I’ll leave you to wander the Woods on your own. Forever.”

“Adora, seriously?!” Catra croaked.

“It’ll be okay,” Adora said to her, gently. Then, to Adam, “I’ll take you there because it belongs to the First Ones and you deserve to see it. And so you can bring word back to your people to stay away from Etheria.”

“Adora!” Catra grabbed her arm.

Adora dismissed her sword and put a hand on Catra’s shoulder. She then gave a quick hand signal before touching her cheek. “It’s okay. It’ll be all right. Just trust me, please.” Catra stared at her for a long moment, but then finally released her. She gave a cold look to Adam, and then backed away toward the edge of the clearing where she and Adora had entered.

“Ok, _Prince_ , let’s go,” Adora said. She strode toward the opposite edge of the clearing, gesturing for Adam to follow. He did, a few paces behind, his sword still in hand.

She stopped just before stepping through the trees. “Please let us go to the Crystal Castle,” she said. “It will be all right.”

The trees rustled, and then separated. Adora turned to Adam, now standing behind and to her right. “Come on.” She stepped into the opening, and after a hesitation, Adam stepped in after her.

Catra, likewise, stepped back into the woods, to find Swift Wind waiting impatiently just past the veil of darkness. “What’s going on?” Swift Wind said. “Where are they going?”

“That Crystal Castle place,” Catra said. “You know where it is?”

“Uh, yeah,” Swift Wind. “What’s going on?”

Catra leapt onto Swift Wind’s back. “She asked me to go get backup. We need to get to Bright Moon _right now_.” She grabbed his mane tightly. “And no crazy flying this time!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Adora led Adam through the forest for a few dozen minutes. It didn’t have to take this long; she could simply have asked the forest to open up a shortcut. She was, instead, taking the long way, silently asking the forest to extend their path as long as possible. She needed to give Catra time to bring Glimmer, Bow, and whomever else she could rally. If this guy really had the power of She-Ra, and if he decided to attack, she’d need all the help she could get. She didn’t like the idea of being alone with him, but it was better than leaving Catra at risk of him attacking her again.

Adam was keeping pace with her, but staying one step behind. A smart, tactical plan, and one Adora herself would have followed if the roles were reversed. It also told her she wouldn’t be able to outwit this guy too easily if it came to that.

“So you came from Eternia?” Adora finally said, breaking the silence between them. “I was - I heard that the First Ones were wiped out. So they’re still...around?”

“The Eternian Empire lives on,” Adam said. To Adora, he sounded like he was chanting some kind of oath, rather than speaking his own belief. “The Empire will rise again.”

“And you’re here to make sure that happens,” Adora said. “Right? Why else would they send the She-Ra?” She paused. “ _A_ She-Ra, I guess.” After another moment, “Are there more of us out there? More She-Ras, I mean? I thought...Light Hope told me there’s only ever one at a time.” _Wouldn’t be the first thing she’d lied about, though,_ she thought.

“There’s usually only one,” Adam said. “But we serve the Empire. However many of us there are.”

“So - _are_ there more of us out there?”

“How much farther?” Adam said, ignoring her question. “I could see the castle while I was landing. It can’t have been this far away.”

“Not too much more,” she said. Changing the subject, she started to ask, “You said I’m an experim-?”

“You’re lying to me,” Adam interrupted. He gestured to a large rock alongside the path. “We’ve crossed that rock twice already.” 

She glanced at it and had to chuckle. It had an “X” carved into it. She had carved that “X” with her sword the first time she tried to navigate these Woods alone. It was the first time she tried to find answers to her questions about who she was, and how to use her new powers. It seemed appropriate for her to run into it again now.

“I told you this forest is unusual,” she said. “I made that mark there the first time I tried to find this place.” She pointed to it. “It’s a - navigation mark. After we’ve crossed it twice-“

“Stop stalling,” Adam said. “You are violating your orders.”

“My orders,” Adora said. She stopped and faced him. “Listen, ‘Prince Adam’, I’m trying to be helpful. I don’t know why you’re here, but I don’t follow your orders. I came to this planet as a baby. I was raised here. I am Etherian. Whatever you think I’m supposed to be doing-“

“You were sent here for specific reasons,” Adam said, interrupting again. “Your Light Hope should have given these to you.”

“And you’re wanting to talk to her, right? That’s why we’re going to the Crystal Castle?”

“My orders are none of your concern,” Adam said. “You will follow mine. Or I will start chopping this forest tree by tree until I find it.”

She stared at him. With the power of She-Ra, she had no doubt he could do just that. “Whatever you say, Your Highness,” she said, placing extra emphasis on the last 2 words. She turned and continued on the path. _Guess time’s up_ , she thought. _Okay, Whispering Woods, I guess it’s time. Help me out, please?_

A light shone through a break in the trees just ahead. Adora and Adam both saw it. She pointed. “That should be it.”

“ _Should_ be?”

“Yeah, _should_ ,” she said. She was already losing her patience with this “Prince Adam”.

They walked toward it, Adam maintaining his rear guard position, and the trees parted, bathing them in light. As Adora had hoped, the Crystal Castle was just beyond. Or, at least, what was left of it. It was overgrown with vines, even moreso now than the last time she had seen it. Pieces of it had crumbled away and had fallen off, leaving the spire a barely-intact relic of an ancient civilization.

“Oh my…” Adam said, slightly agape.

Adora had to smirk at Adam’s surprise. Maybe his attitude was just a put-on, and maybe that meant she could find a way through it to get the answers she wanted. “Shall we go inside?” 

Adam returned his face to its stern expression and nodded. “Lead the way.”

Adora walked toward the door in the ground, Adam still a pace behind. The door was still intact, its First Ones script - which was apparently “Eternian” script - still legible. “Eternia,” she said.

The door tilted downward, tearing at a mass of ivy that had grown across it. They both stepped down the ramp it formed, into the darkness beneath the ground. She summoned her sword and held it up, emitting a sphere of light. She saw more light appear behind her, and glanced back to see Adam had done the same thing.

They followed the corridor until it opened to the large antechamber, with worn crystal pillars, most crumbling and some collapsed, stretching from floor to ceiling. The path on the floor led to a dais in the center of the room. As she had done before, Adora walked up to the dais. Before she could speak, though, Adam said, “Gatekeeper, respond.”

The holographic female form Adora knew only as “Not Light Hope” appeared. _“Greetings, Administrator. What is your query?”_

“Administrator access,” Adam said.

_“Administrator detected. Welcome, She-Ra.”_

_Oh fine. Work for_ him _the first time,_ Adora thought wryly.

“Launch Light Hope OS,” Adam said.

_“Light Hope OS is offline and unreachable.”_

_Uh oh_ , Adora thought.

“Diagnostic,” Adam said.

_“Diagnostic failure. Light Hope OS has been deleted.”_

Adam turned to Adora. “What the hell is it talking about?”

“I...I uh…”

“Open the path to the Central Chamber,” Adam said, turning back to the Gatekeeper.

 _“Central Chamber path opening.”_

The room around them dissolved, the walls disappearing into small cubes, and in their place materialized a large chamber Adora recognized very well. The walls were adorned with angular outcroppings, crystal circuitry, and First Ones script. The two She-Ras were standing on a wide bridge, which was cracked and had large chunks missing from it on either side. Not far ahead of them, Adora could see a diamond-shaped impression in the floor, with cracks spiderwebbing out from it. This was the place where she first took charge of her own destiny. The day she’d destroyed the Sword of Protection and, with it, the horrible weapon of mass destruction the First Ones - the Eternian Empire - had dubbed “Heart of Etheria”.

It was that weapon that she now realized Adam might be seeking. He was about to be sorely disappointed...and she steeled herself to be able to handle his reaction to said disappointment.

“What is this?” Adam said. “What happened here?”

“It’s the last place I ever saw Light Hope,” Adora said. “A lot happened here.”

“Light Hope, respond!” 

No answer, only Adam’s amplified voice echoing back at them.

“She can’t answer,” Adora said. “She’s gone.”

Adam turned to her. “Gone how? Where?”

“Just - gone.” Adora said. “Forever,” she added sadly.

“Dammit,” Adam muttered. He tapped his earpiece. “Last Resort.” Adora watched him for a moment. “Last Resort, come in.” Another pause. He turned to Adora. “Why can’t I get a signal?”

Adora shrugged. She’d never tried to use a communicator from inside here, and wasn’t too concerned with Adam not being able to. She felt her heart begin beating harder in her chest, her fight-or-flight instincts kicking in. That feeling of dread became instantly more intense, as if she could feel his frustration somehow. 

She was beginning to regret her decisions from today. She had intentionally led him here to get him away from her friends, a short-term solution that might now be coming back to bite her. Even though she knew this place was all but a lifeless ruin now, it hit her that he may well know secrets about it she didn’t. Dangerous secrets, which she had just delivered right to him. Whatever he was after, though, she had to be ready to stop him from getting it. She tightened her grip on her sword.

Adam tapped his earpiece. “All right then.” He turned to her, hand extended. “Hand over your sword, soldier. Now.”


	2. Clash at the Crystal Castle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the Princesses converge upon the Crystal Castle, Adora defies Adam and triggers his wrath.

Outside the Crystal Castle, the whine of engines filled the air. The trees rustled and separated, and a large speeder emerged from the dark of the Woods. It was pale blue and white, adorned with the Bright Moon royal seal, an ellipse standing on its end surrounded by a diamond.

The uncovered front seats were occupied by General Juliet of Bright Moon and Bow, who was holding his tracker pad. As it pulled to a halt the doors opened at both sides of the covered, armored passenger compartment. From one side emerged Catra, jumping out before the vehicle stopped. On the other side, Micah and then Glimmer stepped out. Both were dressed in battle gear and armed in their own fashion. Glimmer and Micah carried their respective magical staffs. General Juliet switched off the speeder’s engine and stepped down, retrieving a long pike from its sheath behind her. The pike was stamped with the Bright Moon royal guard signet.

Following almost immediately after, Swift Wind dropped down from above. Melog leaped off his back the second his hooves touched the ground, and made their way toward Catra.

“Been a while since I’ve seen this place,” Bow said, taking in the sight of the overgrown, crumbling Castle. “Looks a lot worse for wear than I remember.”

“Sightseeing later,” Catra said. “They’ve gotta be inside by now.” She walked up to the door in the ground. “Um - any of you know how to open this thing? Last time I was here I followed Adora in.”

“But of course!” Swift Wind said, but he was interrupted by the sound of another engine from the far end of the clearing.

“Hey guys!” Entrapta and Hordak emerged in what looked like a Horde skiff, but with She-Ra’s symbol of hope painted prominently on its sail. “You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to find your way through this forest!”

“Yeah I would,” Catra muttered.

“Where’s Adora?” Entrapta said.

“Inside,” Glimmer said. “We think.”

“She’s in there,” Swift Wind said. “So’s that other She-Ra.”

“Oh, okay...wait, _other_ She-Ra?” Entrapta said.

“Yeah,” Catra said. “You, uh, missed some things at the ship.”

Entrapta’s eyes lit up. “Oh yeah, the ship! Where is it? _Tell me_!”

“Look, can we-” Catra started.

Just then, another skiff, similar to Entrapta’s but with a teardrop symbol painted on its sail, broke through the trees and spun to a halt. “Hey guys!” Scorpia said as she jumped out. Emily hopped out the other side. “We’re not late, are we? Got here as fast as we could.”

“Emily!” Entrapta shrieked, jumping off her skiff and rushing toward the spherical robot. Hordak had to quickly engage the parking brake to keep the skiff from surging forward.

“Hey Catra! Guys!” Scorpia said, engaging the brake on her own skiff and stepping down from it. “What’s going on? You said Adora needs our help with some kind of fake She-Ra?”

“Right,” Glimmer said. She took stock of the team she had gathered. “Okay, Swift Wind, you’ll escort Entrapta and Hordak to the ship. Entrapta and Hordak, see what you can learn from it. If you can disable it so it can’t take off, do it.”

“Very well,” Hordak said.

“That sounds _awesome_!” Entrapta said. “C’mon Emily!” The three of them boarded her skiff.

“Swift Wind, open the door to the Castle and then escort them to the ship.”

Swift Wind raised a wingtip to his forehead in imitation of a salute. “On it, your queeniness!”

“The rest of us will get inside the Castle and help Adora. However we can.”

“Right, so can we get this stupid door open?” Catra said, stomping a foot on the door at the foot of the Castle.

“Patience, o feline beauty,” Swift Wind said. He trotted up to the door, ignoring Catra’s scowl, and tapped his horn to it.

The door lit up and then slid downward. At the bottom, they could see ends of vines that had been cut off when the door closed earlier. Bow activated a torch on his tracker pad and shined it into the darkness within. “Two sets of footprints. They definitely went down here.”

Catra shoved past him. “Quit wasting time, Adora needs us!” Melog confirmed this with a _“mrrow”_ as they followed Catra past Bow and down the ramp.

“Hold on a sec,” Glimmer said, though Catra seemed to ignore her as she continued on. 

“Um, yeah, I’m just gonna go with Catra,” Scorpia said, touching pincers together. “Y’know, ‘cos these First Ones ruins can be dangerous and all that.” She jogged past Bow, nearly knocking him over. “Oops, sorry there, I’ve just gotta...y’know…” She let that thought trail off as she ran into the darkness below. “Catra, wait up!”

“Wait!” Bow said, running after them into the darkness. “Careful or you’ll trigger something down here!” Glimmer started after him, but Juliet stepped in front of her.

“Please, Your Highness,” Juliet said. Glimmer started to protest, but after a glance at her father shaking his head, she nodded and let Juliet proceed first.

“Okay, let’s go, you guys!” Swift Wind said to Entrapta and Hordak. “I’d, um, offer you a ride, but...your spherical friend there probably won’t fit on my back.”

“No big deal,” Entrapta said. She disengaged the skiff’s parking brake.

“Let us make haste,” Hordak said. “We don’t know how long we’ll have before the ship’s owner returns for it.”

“Don’t worry,” Swift Wind said. “Just follow me!” Swift Wind galloped back into the Woods, and Entrapta drove the skiff after him.

Inside the dark corridor, Glimmer could see some light at the end of a long tunnel. She lit a pair of magic spheres that tracked with them to help them see in the darkness. 

Once they reached the antechamber, they found Catra, Scorpia, and Melog standing just inside the doorway, Bow in front of them. She recognized the dais in the center. “Stay away from there,” Bow said, pointing to the raised platform. “Last time we were here we woke up some kind of hologram. When it didn’t recognize us as She-Ra it sicced a bunch of robots on us.”

Catra shuddered. “I don’t want to see those things again.”

“So - what do we do?” Scorpia said. 

“I - I guess we just wait here?” Bow said. “What else can we do?”

“You’re the First Ones expert!” Catra said. “Can’t you figure out a way around here?”

Glimmer put a hand to Catra’s shoulder. “We won’t do her any good by blundering around here and getting lost. Or worse, waking up those security robots.” She shook her head. _I shouldn’t have sent Swift Wind_ away, she thought. _I didn’t even think about us needing him in here. Stupid!_ She sighed and scanned the room all around. “Yeah, Bow’s right. I guess we just...wait. And be ready.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“My sword?” Adora said.

“Now,” Adam repeated.

“Why?”

“I am ordering you to give me the Sword of Protection. Right. Now.”

She couldn’t afford to humor him anymore. It was time to draw the line. “No,” Adora said. “I’m pretty sure I know why you want it, and the answer is no.”

Adam’s eyes narrowed, his lips twitched, and nostrils flared. “Didn’t your Light Hope warn you the consequences for insubordination? They are severe.”

“She didn’t tell me anything about Princes, or soldiers, or orders,” Adora said. “She told me I had to bring balance to the planet, and then activate the Heart of Etheria. Your weapon. And let it wipe out most of the universe.” She pointed to the diamond-shaped impression in the floor. “That spot, right there. I was standing there when I shattered the Sword of Protection. I destroyed the sword, and I destroyed your weapon. I destroyed Light Hope.” She frowned. “I destroyed Light Hope. But - in the end, she let me do it. She _told_ me to do it.”

Adam was staring at her, speechless.

“So whatever you came here for, it’s gone. There’s nothing left for your people here. So why don’t you just go and leave us in peace?”

Adam’s eyes had widened as she spoke. His facade was cracking. He no longer appeared fully in control of his emotions. To her, he almost seemed to be... _panicking_.

He tapped his earpiece again. “Last Resort! Answer me!” A pause. “Last Resort!”

He turned away from her. She felt a surge within her. Her senses suddenly sharpened greatly, and it felt like time slowed, just a little. Acting on instinct, she lifted her sword. It was just in time for Adam to spin around and charge, shouting wordlessly.

She sidestepped his charge, deflecting his sword with her own. She could feel the raw power in his strike, and it staggered her just a little. She felt his foot hook around hers and he pulled it out from underneath her. She shifted her balance to her other foot, though a bit too late, and for a moment she was teetering, her guard down as she tried to keep from falling backward off the bridge. Adam spun around, swinging his massive fist at her face.

The blow threw her head back and sent her airborne, flipping head over heels. She slammed into the wall opposite, the force knocking the air out of her lungs. As she rebounded off the wall she regained enough sense to stab her sword into it, the mighty blade embedding itself easily into the crystal. She continued falling briefly, but her grip on the stuck sword kept her from falling into the pit. She yanked herself up hard, giving herself enough momentum to pull herself up and over the sword.

Adam swiped his sword at her, sending an arc of energy at her. She landed with her feet on the sword and quickly jumped off it and flipped toward solid ground at one of the ends of the bridge. The energy wave struck the sword and wall just as she leaped, shattering the crystal and dislodging her sword, causing it and chunks of the wall to fall into the seemingly endless pit.

Just before she landed she re-summoned her sword to her hand. The moment her feet hit the floor Adam sent another energy wave at her. She countered with one of her own, and the two met several feet away from her, causing the air to explode. She guarded her face with her arms crossed, but then saw Adam was charging her again, his sword trailing behind him and winding up for another large swing. She swiped at the air twice, sending energy waves toward two spots on the bridge. They struck home, causing a section of the bridge to splinter and fall away. Adam leapt over the gap and descended directly toward Adora, sword held in both hands over his head and ready for a chopping strike.

She hopped away at the last instant, and as Adam’s sword came down and struck the floor where she’d just been standing, she threw all her weight into a hard punch to his cheek. It felt like she was punching iron, but she felt his head give and he was knocked away from her. The room seemed to shake with each of the blows.

She hopped backward to get a bit of distance, and quickly examined the room. There was a door at either end of the bridge, but she had no idea where they went. The last time she’d been in this room, after she’d shattered the sword, it had just dissolved around her and deposited her back in the antechamber.

Adam was back on his feet and facing her, though she thought she could see his head bobbing a little. She’d managed to daze him, she hoped. She did not like being stuck in a defensive position, but Adam’s sudden ferocity had until this moment made it impossible for her to take the initiative.

Now it was her turn. She charged at him, sword drawn back and ready for a strike. He, in turn, charged at her, sword up and ready. She thrust her sword at him. He easily deflected the strike, but as he did so she swung her foot up in a swift kick toward his jaw. For an instant she thought she’d connected, but then realized he’d grabbed her foot in his other hand. She didn’t have time to react before he yanked her foot up and over his own head, sending her flying with it, and then he slammed her hard, face-down, onto the floor behind him.

If not for her powers, the blow would likely have been fatal. As it was, she was more surprised than hurt, and she rolled to her left just as Adam’s sword jabbed downward, embedding itself into the floor where her chest had been. Now on her back, she swung her legs up and trapped Adam’s arms between them, scissoring them and forcing him to spin around, knocking him off his feet. She unraveled her legs from his arms and pushed herself away from him, sliding along the floor toward the wall. The wall was curved, and her momentum helped her slide partway up the wall and assisted her in getting back to a standing position with minimal effort. 

Adam yanked his sword out of the hole it had made in the floor and pointed it at her. An energy beam shot from its tip, and struck the wall just after Adora dodged it. It sent electrical arcs along the wall, activating and then overloading some of the embedded circuitry in it. That section of wall flickered, and then parts of it, like collections of tiny cubes, disappeared and left stair-step yellow lines at the edges.

She ran after him again, zigging and zagging to avoid his energy blasts, and deflected a fist he sent to her face with her arm, their wrist protectors _clanking_ against each other. She brought her elbow up and into his ribs, a blow that was blunted by his rock-hard oblique muscle. She dismissed her sword, which was in her other hand, and then balled that hand into a fist and brought it upward, jumping to add more power to the uppercut.

She made solid contact with the area between Adam’s legs, and while she felt some kind of armor there, it gave easily. The force of her punch was transferred through and actually lifted Adam off his feet. He cried out, eyes wide, and his grip loosened on his sword. It disappeared before it hit the ground.

She grabbed his chest armor and, using the upward momentum from her last strike, lifted him up, spun him around, and threw him hard toward the far end of the room. She took that moment to re-summon her sword to her hand, and then she took a running jump over the chasm after him.

Adam struck the opposite wall hard, shattering more crystal and damaging more embedded circuitry. As he ricocheted off the wall parts of it began to disappear. He landed on his hands and knees, gasping for breath. Adora descended on him, one foot out in a flying kick - but then Adam leaned to his right, allowing her leading foot to hit the floor before he shoved her hard through the hole he’d just made in the wall. 

She tucked and rolled, returning to a standing position in a new location, an oblong-shaped corridor with densely-packed, pulsating circuitry in the walls and floor. That was the only illumination in the corridor, aside from that coming from the previous chamber.

Adam got back to his feet. He crouched, both hands open and fingers curled like claws. He roared inhumanly, spittle flying from his mouth, and he leaped through the hole at her.

She sidestepped him, but just as he passed her his sword materialized in his hand and he raked it against her, cutting through the thin armor at the side of her abdomen and sending a spray of blood onto the wall and floor. 

Adora reeled from the strike and dropped a hand to her side. She could feel the hot, sticky blood beginning to pour out. It was a deep cut, and for the briefest moment, she wondered if it was fatal. To her relief, though, she could feel the wound beginning to close. The pain, however, did not recede even as the bleeding slowed. She staggered, trying to keep upright as Adam spun around and held his sword overhead, the point toward her.

She fought to keep from losing her focus. She’d fought plenty of battles in her life, but none as intense or as brutal as this. She had never been injured like this, though she’d seen it happen once before, a long time ago. It had not ended well for the recipient. 

Healing factor or not, she didn’t know if she could keep up fighting like this. Adam was smart. He was strong. And he was a She-Ra. She had to find a way to end this fight soon, one way or another, before she made another mistake that may well cost her life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Do you hear that?” Bow said.

“Yeah,” Catra said, her ears swiveling around on either side of her head. “Adora’s voice. And someone else’s, I think that fake She-Ra’s. Can’t tell where it’s coming from, though.”

“This whole place is an echo chamber,” Micah said. “Can’t we go any further in? Can your tracker pad help us navigate, Bow?”

“Not without risking the security system picking us up,” Glimmer said. “Trust me, we don’t want _that_ to happen.”

“What kind of security system?” Scorpia said. “Can’t we just, you know, break it?”

“Giant spiders,” Bow said.

Scorpia smirked. “That doesn’t sound so bad.”

“Trust me, you do NOT want to tangle with those things,” Bow said.

Another scream from above, this one sounding like it came from a man. A metallic clash, and the room shook a little around them.

Catra was pacing hard, Melog trying to keep up but mostly looking confused. She stopped at the wall and punched a fist into it. “Dammit, I _knew_ I shouldn’t have just let her go alone with that creep!”

“You did the right thing,” Glimmer said. “Now if there’s trouble it’s six against one instead of just two.” Melog growled at her. “Right, sorry Melog. _Seven_ against one.”

Another cry, this one from Adora. Another clash, another rumble. “Doesn’t _that_ sound like there’s trouble to you?” Catra said.

“Hey, it’s gonna be okay.” Scorpia tried to put a claw on Catra’s shoulder but she marched away from it. Scorpia blinked for a second. “Adora’s smart enough not to bite off more than she can chew. If she gets in over her head I’m sure she’ll come get us quick.”

Catra stopped, facing away from everyone. _She’s not, though_ , Catra thought. _She always runs in half-cocked._ She chewed her lip. _I really hope this isn’t the time it comes back to bite her in the ass._

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Adora felt her balance waver. She fell to one knee, one hand still clutching the side that had been cut open. Adam had not moved from his striking position. “Yield,” he ordered. “Now.”

“Yield?” Adora said. “You’re the one who attacked me!”

“Punishment for insubordination,” Adam said.

“Punishment? You’ve been trying to _kill_ me!”

“As I said, the punishment for insubordination is severe.”

“Insubordination,” Adora said. “Toward you?”

“I am your superior officer, soldier.”

“Stop calling me that!” Adora shouted, wincing at the pain it caused in her injured side. “I am not a soldier! I was raised as one when your people abandoned me here, but I gave that life up!”

“You hold the power of She-Ra,” Adam said. “That alone defines who you are.”

“No it _doesn’t_!” Adora said. She pushed herself up to her feet, digging the point of her sword into the floor for extra leverage. She also kept her hand over her now-healed wound, the aching a shadow of the searing pain that had been there only a moment before. She could feel her strength returning to her, thanks to her powers, but pretending to still be injured could hopefully play to her advantage. “I...thought it did, once, but I defied it!” She took a few deep breaths. “When I destroyed the Sword of Protection, I left that all behind!”

Adam studied her for a moment. “But you’re here now, still able to use the power of She-Ra. All you’ve proven is you’re more powerful than that weakling Mara.”

“Don’t you dare say that about her!” She coughed, one that she hoped didn’t sound too fake. “She was stronger than me! She saved the universe from your weapon. She saved Etheria from your control!” She glared at Adam, observing the combination of anger, confusion, and panic in his eyes. “I was supposed to let the Heart of Etheria fire but I didn’t. I made the choice to destroy the sword! I made the choice to destroy your weapon! I made the choice to destroy your control over this world’s magic!” She staggered, letting herself fall into the wall to keep her upright. “Mara made that possible! I freed Etheria from your control. I am _not_ an Eternian. I am an Etherian! Because it is what I _choose_!”

Adam stared at her. He shook his head, and his voice was far quieter, far less certain. “You...that’s impossible. You can’t... _choose_ to defy what you were made!”

“I can, and I did!” Adora pointed at him. “And you? What exactly are _you_? Some mindless barbarian who only follows orders? Who uses the power of She-Ra to kill and destroy? Or just some weak fool too scared to violate orders?”

Adam stared at her for a long moment. He clenched his jaw, and Adora prepared for him to charge again. Instead, his grip on his sword faltered and it fell, clanging to the floor before disappearing. He brought his hands to his head, and with a roar, he turned and punched the wall. Then he did it again. And again. Inlaid circuitry sparked, briefly bathing them in white light.

And then the floor disappeared beneath them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back in the antechamber, the floor began to shake, and chunks of ceiling began falling. 

“Watch out!” Bow shouted.

Micah and Glimmer each cast shield magic above their heads, and Bow and Juliet took refuge underneath with Glimmer. Catra and Melog were too far away, and did not notice the chunk of ceiling breaking free directly above them.

Scorpia, however, did notice it. “Heads up!” she dove at Catra and Melog, tackling them to the floor and shielding them with her body as the particularly large chunk of crystal fell from above. A sharp edge of it struck with its full weight against the exoskeleton plate on her left shoulder, and then the crystal rolled onto the floor. She cried out in pain, but held her protective position over them.

“Scorpia!” Bow shouted. Micah, seeing what happened, extended his arm toward them and summoned another magical shield directly over the trio.

“I - I’m okay,” Scorpia said in a shaky voice, even as her left arm buckled. She continued holding position as best she could over top of Catra and Melog with her uninjured arm.

Catra had been covering her head with her hands, but pulled them away. She rolled over to look at Scorpia, and could see her wincing in pain, tears leaking from her squeezed-shut eyes. She then noticed blood starting to run from her left shoulder plate and down her arm. In the dim light, she could tell that Scorpia’s shoulder shell was broken in half and was bleeding. 

“You’re hurt!”

Scorpia chuckled, while still wincing. “H-hey, it’s no big. Had worse. I c-can take it.”

Another crash, and then another. More chunks of the ceiling fell, some bouncing off the magical shields. And then there were two simultaneous cries from above.

Adora and Adam came crashing to the floor at the far end of the antechamber. Both left depressions and shattered crystal where they landed. Adora had managed to land on her feet, but Adam fell hard on his back, and for a moment his She-Ra form faltered. Adora saw as his figure briefly changed into that of a much shorter, much less muscular person...but the faltering didn’t last long.

After a moment of no more pieces of ceiling falling, Glimmer and Micah released their shield spells. “Adora?” Glimmer said.

“Guys, stay back!” Adora said.

Adam rolled over and pushed himself onto his hands and knees. He looked up at them all, and sneered. “So this is who you’ve thrown your lot with, is it?” He punched the floor and stood. He reached out and his sword rematerialized. “A bunch of savage locals?”

“Hey now!” Scorpia said through clenched teeth, cradling her injured arm as she tried to stand. “Watch it there - big, muscly guy!” 

“Careful, this guy’s no joke!” Catra shouted. She got to her feet and grabbed Scorpia’s uninjured arm, helping her stand. She then got on all fours, Melog at her side. Both growled at Adam.

Adam’s gaze shifted from Adora’s friends, to Adora, back to Adora’s friends, and then to the dark hallway behind them. The exit. He reached up to tap his earpiece, but Catra was already upon him. He tried to swing his sword up and catch her, but she was far too quick and slid along the floor and between his legs. She hooked her claws on his boots and yanked them, pulling his feet out from under him and sending him to the ground. It didn’t seem to stun him at all, though, for as soon as he struck the floor he kicked at Catra. She just barely managed to get out of his range, digging her claws into the hard crystal floor and returning to all fours.

Melog then pounced on him, clamping down with their jaws on Adam’s sword forearm. Adam yanked one way and another, trying to tear his arm from the giant cat’s jaws, but Melog wasn’t letting go.

Glimmer, Bow, and Micah were approaching Adam slowly, Glimmer and Micah with their staffs ready to fire and Bow with an arrow nocked and ready to loose. They dared not fire, though, with Melog in the way.

Adam balled a fist and punched Melog hard to the side of their face. The giant cat went flying and smashed into a wall, falling limp to the ground.

“Melog!” Catra cried. She abandoned her plan to attack Adam again and instead rushed to Melog’s side. She was relieved to find Melog still breathing. 

As Melog let out an unsure, “ _Mrrow?”_ she helped them get, unsteadily, to their feet.

Glimmer, Micah, and Bow loosed their shots, striking Adam again and again. He tried to rise to his feet but was immediately toppled onto his backside. Then his sword morphed into a large, round shield and he brought it up, deflecting the arrows and magic bolts while he tried to hold his position.

Scorpia, holding her injured arm, started toward Adam, approaching the central dais. She raised her good arm, pointed at Adam, and let loose with a bolt of lightning. The lightning bypassed Adam’s shield and shocked him, throwing him hard against the wall and knocking the shield out of his hand.

“Yeah, take that you big glowy jerk!” Scorpia fired another bolt at him, and then a third one, as she slowly stepped onto the raised platform.

A hologram suddenly appeared, startling her. It looked like a tall woman, about her height, clad in a hooded robe. The holographic woman opened its mouth, but did not move it as it spoke. _“Greetings, Administrator. What is your query?”_

“Uh, guys?” Scorpia said. 

_“Query not recognized.”_

“Guys? I think - I think I just did a bad thing!”

_“Unauthorized presence detected. Security protocol activated.”_

Doors all around the antechamber slammed shut, grabbing everyone’s attention. Glimmer, Micah, and Bow stopped firing at Adam and looked all around the room as the doors closed...all except for one, at the opposite end from the exit door. The darkness through that door was broken when dozens of red lights within suddenly winked to life. The sound of mechanical legs stamping on the floor and unnatural cries filled the antechamber.

“Oh not these things again!” Catra shouted. She picked up Melog and sprinted as far away from Adam, and the new threats, as she could.

“Guys, watch out!” Bow said. He switched the arrow he had nocked with a different one from his quiver, drew it, and pointed at the open doorway, waiting. The mechanical spiders flooded out of the doorway and immediately began spraying their webbing at the fighters. Bow loosed an arrow. It struck the lead spider and exploded into a ball of electricity, catching two of the spiders and causing them to stop dead, smoke rising from their joints. 

After ensuring Melog was safe, Catra rushed to Adora’s side. “Just like old times, huh?” she said, panting.

Adora didn’t answer. She didn’t really want to relive the day that Catra had first broken her heart, even if it seemed a lifetime ago. Especially not when she needed to concentrate on maintaining her She-Ra form. Instead she surveyed what had become an enclosed battlefield. Adam was quickly recovering from the combined attacks from her friends, and the mechanical spiders were charging quickly. The situation had quickly gone from bad to disasterrific.

Adam turned his attention to the spiders, and appeared unsure as to what to do. Suddenly one spider sprayed a stream of webbing in his direction - and missed him completely. He turned to see one of the savages behind him, dodging the spray. Another spider shot its webbing, again missing him completely and this time striking the savage.

“Juliet!” Micah shouted, turning his attention toward her.

Adam smirked. These things were ignoring him. This was certainly helpful.

Adora watched both Adam and the spiders. She saw him looking around, and realized just as he had - they were ignoring him. They were ignoring her. _We’re not “unauthorized presence”_ , she thought. Now her choice was to engage Adam yet again, or try to help her friends fend off the spiders.

She didn’t know what to do.

Catra, of course, had charged at the spiders immediately. She was dodging web strikes left and right, leaping from spider to spider, tearing into their glowing red eyes and tearing out their internal components. As she disabled each monstrosity she quickly jumped to the next one, but they just continued pouring out of the open corridor. She knew they needed to get out of here, but they couldn’t let that fake She-Ra escape either.

Her brief distraction allowed one of the spiders to sneak up on her and swing its abdomen around at her, sending her flying. She landed hard and skidded across the floor.

“Catra!” Scorpia marched forward, one arm still limp at her side but the other pincer now pointed at a pair of spiders closing on Catra. She fired a lightning bolt at them, engulfing both in intense electrical arcs. The spiders were thrown into another one behind them, all three shuddering and seizing on the floor. Then another one skittered around them and fired its webbing directly at Scorpia. She didn’t have time to react before the webbing struck her full-force in the chest, throwing her into one of the still-intact pillars and binding her tightly to it. She cried out in the pain of having her injured arm pressed so tightly into her chest.

“Scorpia!” Catra shouted. Sherolled to her feet and dodged and jumped away from the spiders’ projectiles. She landed on Scorpia and started slashing at the webbing.

Meantime, Adora and Adam were grappling, Adora having caught him trying to escape under cover of the spiders’ attack. The spiders were definitely ignoring them. As much as it pained her to do, Adora had to ignore the flying magical blasts and arrows, and her friends’ cries. She was the only one who could stop Adam right now.

Adam swept a leg under Adora’s feet. She countered with her own leg sweep, hooking her leg around Adam’s and yanking. He managed to keep his balance on his other foot, though, and tried to use the trapped leg to pull Adora down. He couldn’t. Despite her smaller size, despite his lifetime of conditioning...she was actually _stronger_ than he was. 

This mission was going south quickly, and he was running out of options.

Glimmer, Micah, and Bow kept moving around the room, trying to keep from being easy targets while keeping the spiders off Catra and Scorpia. Juliet, now free of the webbing, was doing her best to keep near Micah and Glimmer, but seemed well aware she was far outclassed in this battle and had resigned herself to a support role, ready to protect her queen or king regent however she could. Melog, limping on one leg, was trying their best to keep behind Micah. Seeing Mother in peril was agonizing for Melog, and they desperately wanted to charge in after her, but they knew that doing so would only make them an additional liability in the battle.

Glimmer was firing blast after blast at the spiders, trying to keep them away from Bow and herself. She glanced over at Adora and Adam, locked in some kind of wrestling embrace. She then noticed that the spiders were rushing past them, firing webbing around them, but not _at_ them.

_Of course_ , she thought. “Bow, I’ll be right back!” she shouted.

“I’m running out of arrows here!” His main quiver was already empty, and he was pulling from the secondary one he’d had the foresight to bring along.

“Just for a bit!” Glimmer said. She teleported away…

...and appeared just behind Adam. As she expected, the spiders that had been moving past Adora and Adam now started turning their attention to Glimmer. She saw two of them opening their mandibles and preparing to spray webbing, and put herself directly between them and Adam.

“Adora _dodge_!” she shouted, and fired a magical burst at Adam’s back. The blow distracted him just long enough for Adora to headbutt him, then break the grapple and jump away. Glimmer teleported away, just in time for the two spiders to fire their webbing at the position where she’d been standing. The webbing struck Adam and knocked him to the floor, adhering him there in a massive pile of the sticky fibers.

Glimmer reappeared at her previous position, continuing to blast away at the spiders that were starting to overrun Bow’s position. “Got ‘im!” she shouted. 

“What’s the endgame here?” Micah said as he fired a wide magical blast at one of the spiders, turning it inside out. “They keep coming!”

“Get the fake She-Ra and get out of here before these things kill us!” Catra said, slashing away at the final webbing fibers binding Scorpia. Scorpia fell to her knees on the floor, panting and clutching her injured arm.

There was an echoing roar that filled the chamber. It surprised the fighters, and momentarily stunned the spiders. “I...am...the _true_ She-Ra!” Adam roared. He tore the webbing away with a great flex of his muscles, tearing huge chunks of floor with it.

Adora, who had been busy impaling spiders, stopped and turned to him, ready for another onslaught. Instead of attacking her, though, he charged the opposite direction, to the Gatekeeper hologram on the dais. “Administrator access!” he shouted.

_“Access denied. Unauthorized presence detected. Security protocol active.”_

“Dammit!” Adam shouted. He glanced at the path from the dais toward the far wall, and the sealed door there. He sprinted toward it, almost faster than the eye could see. Adora, though, could see he was coming toward Micah.

“King Micah!” Adora shouted.

Micah turned his attention from the spiders toward Adora, and then Adam. He stepped aside, dropped to a knee and pressed his hand to the floor. A purple liquid spread from his hand toward Adam’s path. As Adam’s boots stepped into the liquid, he stopped hard, falling forward and landing on his hands. He glanced down, pulling at each hand and foot, but they were stuck in place.

Micah grunted. Maintaining the trap with Adam struggling against it was sapping his magical energy far more than he’d ever experienced before. Adam turned to Micah. He tore a hand free from the goo, summoned his sword, and pointed it toward Micah. An energy beam shot from its tip. 

“Dad!” Glimmer teleported to him and engaged a shield just in time to protect him from the blast, but his momentary lapse in concentration weakened his trap just enough to allow Adam to tear his other hand free. He jumped, breaking the goo’s grip on his boots and landed on clear floor. He resumed his charge toward the shuttered door. He didn’t even slow down when he reached it, barreling into it with one armored shoulder. He shattered the door, barely losing any momentum as he ran into the dark corridor.

“Don’t let him get away!” Catra shouted. She led the charge after him while Adora remained. 

“Wait!” Adora called, but nobody seemed to hear her. The spiders were still charging after her friends. She turned her attention to them and started taking them out, one after the other, as her friends began their retreat through the new opening.

Outside, Adam emerged from underneath the Crystal Castle, breathing heavily. He scanned the area, trying to determine his next move. 

“Don’t let him get away!” came an echoing voice from the tunnel behind him. He then heard a _whooshing_ from above, and saw what appeared to be some kind of whirlwind approaching. He could just barely see two figures inside it.

One of the savages suddenly appeared behind him. “Hold it right there!” she shouted, pointing a round-ended staff at him.

He then examined the two vehicles parked nearby. One of them, which looked like a floating sailboat, was still humming. Wasting no time he ran and jumped onto it, made a cursory examination of the controls, and started flipping switches. 

“No, stop!” the savage shouted, firing magical blasts at him. He summoned his shield, blocking them as he continued trying to make heads or tails of the skiff’s controls.

The skiff shot forward, and he just barely managed to grab the handle connected to the sail, causing it to turn hard at the last second before it rammed into the side of the Castle. He steered it as best he could toward a break in the trees. He wasn’t sure where he was going, nor if this magic forest would actually let him go anywhere, but anything was better than staying a sitting duck in this clearing.

He shot into the trees and was engulfed in darkness as the sunlit clearing behind him disappeared.

“No!” Glimmer cried as she saw the skiff disappear. She teleported to the royal speeder, started it, and maxed the throttle as she spun it around hard toward the spot in the trees where Adam had disappeared.

“Highness, wait!” General Juliet had just emerged from the tunnel and started sprinting toward the speeder.

“Hold on, General!” Bow said, also having just emerged. He drew and fired one of his last arrows at the speeder; a cord attached the arrow to a small winch attached to his belt. The arrow jammed into one of the rear grilles on the speeder. He and Juliet interlocked hands just as the winch yanked him forward, drawing them both toward the speeder. They managed to reach it and grab handholds at its rear end just as it disappeared into the trees.

Micah emerged from the tunnel just in time to see the speeder disappear with Glimmer at the controls and Bow and Juliet just barely hanging onto it. “Glimmer!” he shouted, in vain.

Catra emerged, seeing Adam gone, and pounded a fist into the ground. “Dammit!” Scorpia and Melog both emerged shortly afterward, both clearly struggling to walk.

After the sound of more explosions and crashes from the tunnel, Adora emerged. She scraped her sword along the door and it raised shut behind her.

“Where did he go?” Adora said. “Wait - where’s Glimmer and Bow?”

A whirlwind stirred up some dust at their feet and they looked up. Spinnerella and Netossa were approaching, hovering together overhead. Netossa dropped from the whirlwind, but Spinnerella stayed aloft.

“Sorry we’re late,” Netossa said. “Spinny’s got eyes on Glimmer and someone else going that way.” She pointed toward the trees. “I’m guessing that’s the fake She-Ra?”

Catra nodded and started to speak, but Adora said, “He’s not fake. He’s a real She-Ra.” They all turned to her, eyes widened in surprise. “It’s a long story, but I can’t - we don’t have time to go into it right now.”

Netossa turned to Spinnerella and shot her a thumbs-up. “Go, Spinny!” Spinnerella nodded and sped away in the direction Glimmer had gone. 

Scorpia cried out and fell to her knees. Out in the sunlight, it was plainly visible to all just how bad her injury was. The carapace plate on her left shoulder was cracked in half, bowed in the middle, and blood was still oozing from the would. 

“Scorpia!” Adora and Catra both shouted, rushing to her. 

“I-I’m okay,” she said, sitting back on her feet and touching her arm with her right hand. She pulled at the arm, but the broken plate separated and the pieces scraped against each other. She cried out again, tears in her eyes. “Okay...m-maybe I’m...not okay…”

“Scorpia…” Catra said.

“Heh. I kinda...kinda screwed up in there, didn’t I?”

“You did great,” Catra said, placing a hand to Scorpia’s cheek. “You saved my life. And Melog’s.”

Scorpia chuckled, wincing. “What’re friends for, right?”

Adora laid a hand on Catra’s shoulder. Catra looked up, and when Adora nodded, she sood and moved away. Adora took Catra’s place and knelt down in front of Scorpia. “W-wha-?” Scorpia started. Adora placed a hand at either side of Scorpia’s face and her eyes started to glow a brilliant blue. “What - what’re you - ?”

White light enveloped Scorpia. Her eyes, which had been narrowed, widened in surprise. Once the white light faded and Adora had removed her hands, Scorpia realized that the pain in her arm was gone. 

She looked down at her shoulder, plate now fully intact. Blood still stained her arm, but no more was being added to it. She gingerly raised her arm and, feeling no pain, twisted it around. “Wow,” she said. “I did _not_ know you could do that.”

Catra smiled, and Scorpia, seeing this, smiled back. 

“It’ll be sore for a while,” Adora said. “But it should be as good as new.” 

“Wow, neat. I mean, the whole hands to my face, staring into my eyes thing was kinda creepy, but that’s sure a handy thing to have.”

“You’re welcome,” Adora quipped. She then turned toward the Woods. _Swifty, we need you._

As she walked to Melog and healed their injuries as well, Catra knelt back down by Scorpia. “Hey, Scorpia. Listen, I - uh...thanks. For saving my life.”

“You’d do the same for me,” Scorpia said. “You kinda did, actually.”

“Look, when - when we have a chance, I really wanna talk. About - about things.”

Scorpia smiled. “Sure thing, Wildcat.”

They were interrupted by Swift Wind emerging from the forest. “You called, She-Ra?”

“Are Entrapta and Hordak okay?” Adora said, standing.

“Yeah, they’re in heaven playing with that thing. I mean, the ship had some other wild defense mechanisms, but they got around those pretty easily. Entrapta was all, ‘Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!’”

“Okay, I get it,” Adora said. She turned to Catra. “Catra, please get everyone else back to the ship. If Adam manages to get back there we’ll need everyone to stop him there. Swifty, you and I will go after Adam.”

“Got it. Swift Wind and She-Ra to the rescuuuuue!”

Adora started toward Swift Wind, but Catra grabbed her hand. “Adora.” Adora turned back to her. “Please...be careful.”

Adora gave a reassuring smile and nodded. She placed her other hand gently over Catra’s. “I promise.”


	3. Hesitation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adam has escaped, but if Glimmer and Adora have their way, not for long.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNING: Child abuse in the first section
> 
> Skip to the second section of this chapter (after the first set of tildes ~~~) if you wish to skip past it.

A bang at the door.

A quick shuffle as things are stuffed under the bed.

“Open, now!”

The voice bypasses the lock. The door hisses open. 

“What are you doing, child?”

“I’m - I’m...studying.” The child returns to the desk and lays hands on the open book.

“Oh are you?”

Footsteps behind the child. Hard and crisp on the stone floor. A _crunch_.

“What is this?”

The child cringes.

A scrabbling. A toy is shoved in front of the child’s face. A doll with a dislocated leg and a caved-in head. It had been intact a moment before.

“What _is this_?”

“It’s...it’s a...toy…”

The massive hand squeezes the doll, crushing it, and then throws it onto the desk. The thrown toy strikes the child’s hand. The child cries out in pain and grabs the hand. The child starts crying. 

The chair is spun around. The child faces a pair of angry brown eyes and a frown plainly visible despite the thick brown beard.

“And now you’re weeping?”

The child continued to snivel.

“What are you?”

The child didn’t answer.

The child’s world exploded into white and red. When the child could see again, the massive hand that had slapped it was raised, palm out, ready for another strike.

“What _are you_?”

“I - I don’t kn-“

Another slap, harder than the first.

“Tell me what you are!”

The child was crying openly now. “I...I’m a p-prince-“

“You are royalty. You are a _warrior_.”

“I - I’m a w-warrior?”

“A warrior does _not_ play with _dolls_!”

“B-but I like-“

Another hard slap.

“You. Do. Not. Play. With. Dolls!”

Lips were quivering, and words were barely intelligible. “I - don’t p-play with d-dolls…”

“You. Are. Royalty!”

“I...am r-royalty…”

“You. Are. A. Warrior.”

“I-I’m...but I don’t want to be a warrior!”

The words came out before the child could stop them.

“What did you say?”

The child stands before the giant. “I’m not a warrior!”

Confusion swirls in the face before the child. Confusion, then anger. And then rage. “SILENCE! You were chosen to be a warrior! You have a destiny!”

“But I...I don’t wanna-”

A strike so hard and so sudden the child is thrown to the floor. Feeling dazed, the child isn’t sure what just happened.

“This impertinence ends at once! We have overlooked many things, overlooked your rebellions, but no more! It is time for you to live up to your legacy!”

The child looks up at the giant, a tower of a being. So large, so frightening. And yet, the child cannot help the last little spark of rebellion that shoots up their throat. “No!”

The giant loomed over the child, engulfing. “This is for your own good. You will learn to accept what you are!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_“What are you?”_

The words that the experiment said had just popped into his head. He wasn’t sure why.

No, he was sure why. They’d brought up some kind of rage in him. He’d lost control, because of those three little words.

Adam shook his head. He needed to keep his head on straight. He already had his hands full trying to keep the skiff flying straight. Between the rough terrain and the trees, both of which seemed to be changing almost constantly, the vehicle had taken a beating. The feel of the controls had changed, and he was sure some things were damaged or knocked out of alignment.

It didn’t help that he just now realized that he’d been gripping the steering lever so tightly that half of it snapped off in his hand. 

This was a very poor time for him to lose focus. The forest was trying its best to kill him. Every time he dared a glance backward he could see the trees parting, as if making it easier for the other vehicle to follow. The enemy was slowly gaining.

Worse, for all he knew he was flying in circles. And flying blind. He tapped his earpiece. “Last Resort, do you read?”

_“Affirmative.”_

He quietly thanked the old gods for small miracles. “I need to report. Mission has gone south. Light Hope was destroyed. The experiment refused to comply. She brought more locals and ambushed me. I’m currently escaping in one of their vehicles and I need a route back to you.”

_“I cannot provide direct telemetry due to interference.”_

“Great.”

_“Unhelpful speech. However, I have detected a device using modified Eternian technology that is not affected by the interference. I have implemented a rootkit on the device and will have control of it shortly. Stand by.”_

_“Stand by,”_ he thought. _Get your microprocessor out here and see what “stand by” feels like._

Suddenly, there was a break in the trees ahead, and as he passed through it, saw a structure beyond it. Directly in front of him. He pulled hard on the air brake and turned the sail hard. The skiff spun and bumped into the structure, causing it to shake and buckling the wall. He had to brace his feet to keep from being thrown into it. 

There were screams and shouts of surprise that sounded like they came from the other side of the wall.

He released the brake and engaged just enough thrust to pull away from the structure, circling past it. He could see other, similar ones to either side. As he passed around the building he could see a fountain and some creatures milling about. 

He’d run headlong into a village. This could either be very bad for him...or very good.

The creatures in the village square were of a type he hadn’t seen in person before, though he was no stranger to aliens. Bipedal creatures with legs and horns like goats, some of whom had seen him and were approaching. He remembered seeing these during his preparatory briefings...and then he noticed the tall, white-skinned, pointed-eared creatures interspersed with them. They were wearing various outfits and their eyes glowed various colors...but he recognized those easily. 

Horde Prime’s clone army. They were on Etheria.

He tapped his earpiece. “Last Resort! We have a new problem!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glimmer held the controls tightly, focusing on maintaining pursuit. Fortunately, it seemed the Woods were being cooperative today, the trees moving aside to allow the somewhat unwieldy royal speeder through without much obstruction. 

They crossed through a particularly dense thicket, and once past it they could see a hint of sunlight...and a skiff stopped dead, its broad side facing their direction.

“There he is everyone!” Glimmer shouted. “Hold on to something!”

Bow checked his tracker pad even as he braced himself. “He led us into Thaymor!”

‘“Not good!” Juliet said. “If the villagers get in the crossfire…”

Glimmer couldn’t think about that for the moment. She was trying her hardest to stop the speeder before it rammed straight through the skiff, and through the village itself. They had been going so fast they burst through the remaining trees and were barreling toward the skiff. Glimmer pressed her foot as hard as she could on the break, crying out through gritted teeth, while Bow yelped and braced himself. Juliet positioned herself next to Glimmer, ready to take the brunt of any impact in her queen’s place.

 _Won’t make it_ , Glimmer thought. She activated a magical barrier ahead of them. The speeder struck the barrier, which stretched forward like a net, and the speeder’s nose struck the broadside of the skiff.

Adam had seen them coming, had tried to engage the thrusters to move out of the way, but it was too late to avoid the collision. The crash forced the skiff’s rear end sideways, and he was knocked off the skiff and onto the grassy turf below.

Glimmer teleported off the stopped speeder and onto the skiff just above Adam. She created a magical dome on top of him, and then made it shrink until it was binding him tightly to the ground and allowing little room to move. He struggled, pulling against the binding with all his might. It took all of Glimmer’s strength just to maintain the restraint against his sheer strength.

Adam reached the limit of his range of motion, but the magical net held. As he relaxed a little for a second attempt, Glimmer tightened the net, removing that freedom. His second attempt to break free was still as forceful as the first, though, and sweat began to drip down her face with the exertion of maintaining it.

Then, with a roar, a white energy burst forth from Adam’s body and Glimmer was knocked backward off the skiff.

As Adam started to stand he was struck by an arrow that exploded, wrapping him in a mass of green goo and sending him rolling away. While Bow gave chase, one of his last remaining arrows pointed at Adam, Juliet rushed to Glimmer’s side.

“I-I’m okay,” Glimmer said, as Juliet helped her to her feet. “Go deal with him!”

There was the sound of rushing wind, and Spinnerella landed from above. Adam flexing his arms and legs, tearing away at the mass of goo covering his body.

“Spinnerella, get ‘im!” Bow said.

She raised a hand to Adam and the air itself spun around him, lifting him and various bits of debris off the ground and into a small tornado. Spinnerella twirled her hand and Adam began spinning in the air, faster and faster.

“That should keep him busy,” Spinnerella said. 

“Or... _dizzy_?” Bow said, smirking.

Spinnerella smiled. “Exactly my point.”

“Good work, guys,” Glimmer said, teleporting to Bow’s side.

“So this...he’s some kind of fake She-Ra, you said?” Spinnerella said.

“I guess so,” Glimmer said. “He’s got powers like Adora’s though. And he’s really tough.”

“Well Adora wasn’t too far behind me,” Spinnerella said. “I can keep him up there as long as we want, but I’m pretty sure the people of Thaymor don’t want a perpetual tornado in their village.”

As if on cue, several Thaymorians approached the group. “Queen Glimmer?” A gray-haired and long-bearded one said. “What is happening?”

“Elder,” Glimmer said, “get everyone to shelter. We’ve got this under control, but everyone needs to stay in safety in case something-“

 _“Happens,”_ was what Glimmer was going to say, but events said it for her. A sword appeared just outside the tornado and spun in a circle, releasing a ring of white energy. Spinnerella dodged it at the last moment, but the momentary lapse caused the tornado to weaken. The energy ring also struck the mass wrapped around Adam, slicing it open and releasing him. He grabbed the sword from the air and thrust it downward, sending him toward the ground in a spiral. As he hit he caused the ground to shake and several cracks to from in the surface, knocking everyone present off their feet.

“Go! Now!” Glimmer shouted to the Thaymor elder, and once the villagers got to their feet they followed her order without protest.

Adam stood, unsteadily. He adopted a wide stance, fighting off the dizziness from his brief captivity in the magical tornado. He raised his sword.

“No you don’t!” Overhead, Adora leapt off Swift Wind’s back and fell directly toward Adam, sword-first.

Adam glanced upward and brought his sword over just in time to parry the thrusting sword’s tip, but Adora’s body struck his and sent him back to the ground.

She jumped up and charged at him, but Adam raised both feet and kicked at her. She deflected the kick with her arms, but the momentum allowed him to roll backward and into a standing position. He raised his sword, but instead of facing off against Adora, he turned and ran.

It took them a moment to realize he wasn’t fleeing. He was heading right for the center of the village.

As villagers and clones were screaming and fleeing, some tripping over themselves and others trying to help each other, Adam began swinging his sword, letting loose wave after wave of energy at them. He struck villagers all around, changing direction in an almost random fashion as he went after different groups of innocents.

He raised his sword at a group of villagers being led away by a pair of Prime clones...but hesitated when he realized they were almost all children.

A concussion arrow exploded into the side of his face and threw him several feet away, his sword flying from his grip and vanishing.

“You monster!” Bow shouted as he nocked another arrow. Adam rolled away just as Bow let the arrow fly, the net that burst from it wrapping uselessly on empty, trampled ground. Adam grabbed the net and flung it back at Bow, who dodged it, and then Adam jumped to his feet, hand open. Before his sword could fully materialize, though, Adora flew into him and delivered a hard punch to the cheek. It knocked him away, into range of a fierce two-hoofed kick from Swift Wind.

“You don’t hurt people in my hometown!” Swift Wind said.

The kick sent him back into Adora who tried to smash her fist square into his face. This time, though, he turned his head at just the right moment for her to miss, and for him to grab her arm at the elbow. He raised his own elbow, catching the underside of her shoulder and knocking her off balance. He followed up with a knee to her stomach, and then he grabbed her and threw her at Bow.

He then noticed that the others who’d chased after him - the pink-skinned one, the dark-skinned one, and the mage - weren’t attacking. They were trying to help the villagers he’d injured, standing between him and them but holding their ground rather than teaming up against him. 

His distraction had worked. He summoned his sword and jammed it into the ground at his feet. Tearing it back upward, it sent a wave of shattered earth toward the largest group of villagers.

“No!” Bow shouted. He and Adora both got to their feet and ran toward the villagers, trying to beat Adam’s earth strike to them. Adora, with She-Ra’s speed, was able to surpass it, turn around, and at the last second turn her sword into a massive shield. She managed to block the earth strike from hitting the villagers, instead deflecting it sideways...directly into a house.

“No!” Adora cried, and she ran toward the house.

Adam, seeing his chance, ran off through the village toward the tree line at the far end. 

The earth strike split the house in two, both halves starting to collapse into the center. Adora put every ounce of her energy into her speed, bursting through the front door, searching for and picking up anyone she could find within, and carrying them back out before the house finished collapsing. 

Bow was shocked at what he’d just seen. He’d never seen She-Ra move so _fast_. 

“Adora!” Glimmer said, teleporting to her. She turned to one of the Thaymorians Adora had rescued, clearly in shock. “Did - did you get everyone out in time?”

“I...I think so,” Adora said. 

“How many of you were in there?” Glimmer said. 

One of the younger ones said, “Seven. I know because I counted everyone on my fingers!” The child held up two hands, with a total of seven fingers extended. 

“That’s a relief,” Adora said, breathing heavily. She was exerting a lot of energy, between the fighting, and the super-running, not to mention keeping her She-Ra form active for so long during all of that. The white aura that always surrounded her in her She-Ra form was beginning to falter. “Wait - where’s Adam?”

Bow pulled out his pad. “He’s almost to the edge of the woods, near the Fright Zone border!”

“We can’t lose him!” Glimmer said. 

“We’ve got injured people here!” Spinnerella shouted at them. “They need our help!”

“Dammit,” Glimmer muttered under her breath. “Adora, can you heal these people?”

Adora looked over at the injured. She’d never tried healing so many people at once - at least not without the planet channeling its magic through her. But still… “Y-yeah, I can do that.”

“Good! We’re chasing after him!” Glimmer grabbed Bow and Juliet by the arm. “You two catch up with us as soon as you can!”

“Glimmer wait!” Adora shouted. But it was in vain; Glimmer had already teleported herself, Bow, and Juliet away. She then heard and saw the Bright Moon speeder tear its way around the village and into the woods at the far end. 

Adora turned back toward the villagers. She had to go after Adam if they had any hope of finally stopping him...but so many people had serious injuries, broken bones, and some bleeding. She couldn’t just leave them like this. She just had to hope that Glimmer, Bow, and Juliet could manage to slow Adam down without getting themselves hurt. Or worse. 

Part of her ached to dismiss her She-Ra form, if just for a bit. She was really feeling the strain of it now, both physically and mentally. But if she did it now, if she let She-Ra rest now, she worried she wouldn’t be able to bring her back in time to help these people or to fight Adam. 

She jogged toward the closest group of injured and got to work. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Catra was pacing, wearing footprints into the grass. The others seemed to be satisfied having her in charge of the “backup team”, being ready if that Adam character showed up. There was a time not long ago she could sit patiently and wait for events to unfold, but those times she’d been in control of the situation - or at least felt like she’d been in control. Now she felt like bait in a trap, waiting for the game they were hunting to devour her as part of the ruse. 

It was maddening for her. She trusted Adora’s judgment - at least in sending part of the team here. As she reflected back on it she probably would have made the exact same call in Adora’s place. That didn’t mean she had to be happy about it.

Netossa, Micah, and Scorpia were all patrolling the treeline, watching and listening for any sign of an approaching enemy. They, at least, had something to occupy them.

As for Entrapta and Hordak, she had already checked on them once. Well, on Entrapta anyway. Entrapta was in heaven examining the new ship, and had talked her ear off about so many things Catra couldn’t even begin to understand.

As for Hordak, Catra wasn’t very eager to talk with him. Not yet anyway. She believed they had buried the bad blood between them, though she didn’t feel a rush to try to mend any sort of fences with him. From what she could tell, he was in no hurry either. After all, she did usurp his empire and almost kill him, after his years of treating her like a disposable asset.

Sooner or later the time would come when she would just have to get it over with. It was part of the healing process, her therapist had insisted, that she at least try to make peace with those she’d hurt. It was important to her, to become better. She supposed it could be worse, though. At least she had a reasonable excuse for not seeking out Shadow Weaver for any kind of closure.

That thought made her chuckle, if ruefully.

She heard a whistle, and turned to see Netossa signaling to her. She had backed up, hands back and ready to launch one of her signature nets at the intruder. Micah and Scorpia had also readied themselves to attack. Catra unsheathed her claws and drew back to be ready to pounce. if needed.

“Hey everyone, I-” 

Perfuma stopped and gasped at the sight of her friends facing her, as if ready to fight.

Netossa let out her breath and allowed the net in her hands to evaporate.

“Hey Perfuma!” Scorpia shouted, running up toward her. She grasped Perfuma under her arms, lifted her in the air, and the pair kissed. “Glad you made it,” Scorpia said, once her mouth was no longer occupied.

“I got here as quickly as I could. The plants are really...strange today.” She glanced at the ship. “Oh wow, where did this thing come from?”

Scorpia said, “This is, uh, a First Ones ship. Belongs to that other She-Ra.”

“The other _what_?” 

“Yeah, long story.”

“Guys,” Catra hissed. “Keep it quiet!”

“Right, right,” Scorpia said, in hushed tones. Then, to Perfuma, “We’re standing guard here, because there’s this other She-Ra that landed and now Adora and the others are chasing him around the forest somewhere. And he’s tough, lemme tell ya…”

Netossa glanced at Catra and shrugged. Catra nodded, and Netossa and Micah returned to their patrol while Scorpia continued filling Perfuma in on the situation.

Now feeling _really_ bored, Catra walked up to Entrapta. “So, you, um, figure out anything else about this thing?”

“Oh sure!” Entrapta said. “Well, not really. I mean, she’s lot like Darla, but different. More advanced. Not too much, though, like a generation or two newer.”

“But isn’t Darla over a thousand years old?”

“Yup! That means this one’s still super old too. But it’s in mint condition! Y’know, minus the damage it got when it landed.”

Catra reached out to touch it, but then pulled her hand away. “You...um...you got the security countermeasures turned off, right?”

“Oh yeah, it kept trying to shock me and Hordak when we first got here. But we got around that easily. It’s still locked up so we can’t get inside, but we were able to jam up the engines. It’s weird though. Like, Hordak opened up an engine panel, to look at the circuitry, but when he got back to it later it looked like the circuitry had...changed. It almost seems like it’s - fighting us.”

“That - doesn’t sound good,” Catra said. 

“Actually it’s amazing! Like self-healing circuitry! Lightyears beyond anything we’ve ever seen before! Even Horde Prime’s tech couldn’t do that!”

Catra frowned. “If it keeps healing itself, keep breaking it. If that guy gets back here and gets to the ship…”

Actually, Catra wasn’t sure exactly what would happen if Adam got back to the ship. If he left Etheria, that would certainly be a good thing for them. Unless he was the scout for an invasion. She shuddered. Another alien invasion in the space of a few months.

“Oh yeah! You gotta tell me about that! So there’s really another She-Ra?”

“I guess,” Catra said. “Adora thinks he is, anyway.”

“‘He’,” Entrapta said, musing. “Interesting.”

“Is it?”

“Well, the first part of the title, ‘She’, would seem to indicate that the title of She-Ra was intended only for females of the First Ones’ species. But that also presupposes the pronoun ‘she’ in our language has an equivalent meaning in the First Ones’ language. If this other She-Ra is indeed male, then the ‘she’ prefix in ‘She-Ra’ must not be related to the gender of the title holder.”

Catra stood there blinking for a moment. “And that means…?”

“I’ve got a lot more work to do before I can understand the First Ones’ language! So exciting!”

Catra forced a laugh, if only to humor her. “Uh, yeah.” She turned to see Scorpia and Perfuma still talking, and started toward them.

Scorpia was still explaining the situation, and Catra could read the confusion on Perfuma’s face. “So, anyway, here we are,” Scorpia concluded. “Weird, huh?”

Perfuma nodded. “Yeah - weird is definitely a word for it.” She glanced at Catra. “Oh hey, Catra,” she said. “Scorpia just told me what’s going on. We’re...really fighting a She-Ra?”

“More or less, yeah,” Catra said. “And he could be here at any minute. Are you ready to fight?”

“Fight a She-Ra?” She closed her eyes, spread her hands, inhaled deeply, and let the breath go slowly. “Yes, I - think so,” Perfuma said.

“Hey, I believe in you,” Scorpia said. She took Perfuma’s hands into her pincers and stared into her eyes. “Just remember - ‘I can do this. I can do this.’”

“I can do this,” Perfuma said. She smiled. “With you standing with me, I feel like I can do anything.”

Scorpia blushed and looked away. 

The sight of the two made Catra smile. One of her pains from the past was her inability to be the friend Scorpia had needed, back when they were in the Horde together. Her inability to be a friend to anyone at all, in fact. She was glad Scorpia had found her happiness. She was also glad Scorpia had found that happiness without it having to directly involve her. As loyal as she was, as bad a friend Catra had been at the time, Scorpia’s attempts had been absolutely suffocating.

“Actually, I just thought of something,” Scorpia said. “Entrapta’s trying to keep the ship from taking off, right? It’d be a lot harder for it to take off if it’s all tangled up in plants.” She winked at Perfuma. “Ya know, hint-hint?”

Perfuma gasped. “That’s a great idea! Thank you!” She jumped up, gave Scorpia a peck on the cheek, and started running toward Entrapta. “Hey, Entrapta! How about I wrap the ship up in plants?”

Scorpia smiled as she watched Perfuma jog toward the ship. Catra likewise smiled. “So - you two, huh?”

Scorpia gave a half smile and rubbed the back of her head. “Well, yeah. Me and her.”

“Good. I’m glad you-” She stopped as she heard some kind of squeal coming from behind. She turned back toward the ship, where Perfuma was just beginning to raise plants from the ground. She’d heard the sound before. She’d smelled the odor before. Sharp, stinging her nose. The fur all over her body was rising, tingling. 

“Everyone!” she shouted. “Get away from the-”

A brilliant flash of light interrupted her, and she could say nothing more.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Adam kept running. Where he was going, he couldn’t say, but the further away he got from the forest, the better. The compass embedded in his wrist was finally working, which told him that whatever was causing the interference was behind him.

So were those savages, chasing him in their vehicle.

This wooded area was thin, compared to the one he had traversed before, and it didn’t give him the same feeling that it was trying to confuse him. It wasn’t long before he emerged to a vast plain, grassy and dotted with flowers of various types. In the distance, he could see strangely-shaped mountains, looking almost like spires standing in the ground.

It took him a moment to realize they weren’t mountains. They were some kind of buildings, not Eternian, and completely overgrown. This planet kept getting stranger and stranger.

His earpiece chimed. _“Their technology can track your energy signature.”_

“What? How-?”

_“Deactivate and take cover. Now.”_

_Question your orders in battle and die,_ he remembered one of his sergeants telling him once. He took and released a breath, and his enormous muscular form vanished into a white mist. What was left was a man, wearing a basic green jumpsuit, with strawberry blonde hair and a slight, wiry, build. He had lost nearly a meter in height.

_“Find cover. Now.”_

He turned around, the sound of the speeder’s engine growing by the second. He found the corpse of a large tree, split in half by some violent means. The stump had a gap in the center, just wide enough to fit his normal form, and just tall enough to conceal him if he crouched. He dove for the stump and scrambled inside.

The speeder broke through the woods not far from where he had emerged. It spun to a stop and its three occupants hopped out.

“Where is he, Bow?” Glimmer said, searching all around.

“I don’t know,” Bow said. He raised his tracker pad and turned it in all directions. “I lost him.”

“Could he be jamming the signal?” Juliet said, standing close to Glimmer with her polearm at the ready.

“Maybe,” Bow said. “But if he could, why didn’t he do it earlier when he was on the skiff?”

“Dammit!” Glimmer said. 

The wind whistled, and Spinnerella descended from her whirlwind. “I caught a white flash right here just a minute ago,” she said. “And then nothing. It’s like he disappeared.”

“You - don’t think he can turn invisible, do you?” Bow said. 

“He would have done that already, too,” Glimmer said. She sighed, trying to push her frustration at herself and the situation back down. “Can you scan for life signs?”

Bow rubbed the back of his head. “Yeah - that hasn’t worked right since Adora freed all the magic. The whole planet is a life sign now, and I’m still figuring out how to filter them all out.” He noticed a glitch in the display of his tracker pad, and tapped the corner. The glitch vanished. 

“All right,” Glimmer said. “I guess we need to fan out. Search the old-fashioned way.”

They spread out, each taking various sections of the forest edge. Spinnerella used her wind powers to push aside the various bushes and saplings, and Glimmer teleported in and out, launching spheres of light to illuminate the shadows.

“Guys!” Adora’s voice came from above. She and Swift Wind descended, and Adora stepped off his back. She was breathing heavily, her white aura pulsating, seeming to fade in and out. “What’s...what happened? Where’s Adam?”

“I - we…” Bow started. “I lost him.”

“ _We_ lost him,” Glimmer corrected, not looking back at Adora.

Adora turned to Swift Wind, but he shook his head. “I - I can’t feel him. He was right here, but it’s like he vanished.”

“He turned off his She-Ra power,” Juliet said. “It makes logical sense.”

“So he figured out we can track him,” Adora said. “Great.”

“Okay,” Glimmer said, “we can’t stand here complaining about what we can’t control. Everyone else is at the ship, right?”

“Yeah,” Adora said.

“So he’s not getting off the planet. That just means he could go anywhere else and cause havoc.”

Bow stepped forward. “I might be able to program the spires to scan for his energy signature. For whenever he turns his She-Ra back on. They’ll have to run all the time, and I know a lot of folks aren’t too happy with those things to begin with-”

“Great idea!” Glimmer said. “How quick can you do it?”

“Oh, I - uh...I didn’t mean I could do it right now. I’d have to crack into the system again and probably actually go travel to some of them to get them up and running again.”

Glimmer sighed. “Let’s just keep searching.”

Adam watched from his hiding spot as they spread back out. He tapped his earpiece. “They’re searching for me. I need to take them out.”

_“Negative. I have your last coordinates. I am coming to you.”_

“But I can-“

_“Unhelpful speech. Follow your orders and remain hidden until I arrive.”_

He clenched his teeth. “Acknowledged.”

In a way, he was glad for the order. That fight, the escape...what he’d done in the village...it had all taken a lot out of him. After hibernating for so long, he didn’t feel the same stamina he used to. Despite Last Resort’s...reconditioning…after he was revived, he didn’t feel quite like himself.

Still, he hunkered down, preparing himself to summon She-Ra again if he was found before Last Resort arrived.

He watched, his adrenaline rising, as the tall, dark-skinned one approached his hiding spot. If he had to, he could take her out, and maybe even the talking horse-thing, but then he’d be facing the archer, the mage, and the experiment. He wasn’t sure he had the energy for that.

_“Approaching your position now.”_

“Do you hear something?”

The dark-skinned woman turned away from his position toward the archer. The archer was holding up the tablet. “The ship is coming!”

“Watch out!” the experiment shouted to the others.

The ship appeared from over the trees, blasting them all with the wind being repelled by its antigrav engines. Before any of them could react, it fired bolts of electricity down at them. Swift Wind and Bow fell immediately. Juliet tackled Glimmer and shielded her before the bolts could hit her. 

Spinnerella surrounded herself with a whirlwind so intense that it seemed to form a static shell around her. The ship fired another, more massive bolt directly at her, so strong it made the air practically explode. The whirlwind shell vanished and Spinnerella was thrown a dozen meters away.

Adora had summoned her shield, but as soon as the bolt hit it, it shattered. She cried out as the bolt struck her and she fell to her knees. Her strength finally gave out and her She-Ra form vanished. She was defenseless, conscious but barely able to keep from falling over.

The ship crossed overhead, and as it neared the ground its landing ramp opened. Adora watched, helpless, as a figure rushed out from the trees. He was thin, clad almost entirely in green, with a mop of strawberry blonde hair. He jumped onto the ship’s ramp, pausing to look back at Adora. They locked gazes for a moment, and then Adam clambered up the ramp as it shut.

A massive rush of air burst forth from beneath the ship and it lifted to above the tree level, turned, and sped away.

Adora’s head fell. It took all her willpower to keep from passing out.

“Bow!” Adora glanced up to see Glimmer pushing her way out from underneath an unconscious Juliet. She crawled, stumbled, and then ran toward Bow. She cradled his head in her lap and touched his face. 

“G-Glimmer…” Adora said. 

“Adora?” Glimmer said, but did not leave Bow.

“H-he got away,” she said. “I - I let him get away.”

“It’s...not your fault,” Glimmer said. She turned back to Bow, touching his neck. “If anyone’s it’s mine.” She sighed in relief as she felt Bow stir and moan. “Can you stand, Adora?”

“I - I think so.” Adora pushed herself to her feet. She swayed and fell to one knee, but then pushed herself up again. “We - we have to go check on the others. I sent them to the ship. Where the ship was.”

Glimmer turned to Adora, eyes wide. She looked from Bow to Adora, from Spinnerella to Juliet. “I need to get to them. Can you help everyone here?”

“Y-yeah,” Adora said. “Just...just gotta catch my breath.”

Glimmer gently laid Bow down on the ground. She pulled off her cape, rolled it up, and placed the makeshift pillow under Bow’s head. After lingering at him for a moment longer, she summoned her staff and stood. “I’ll call for a medical squad. Just sit tight, okay?”

Adora nodded, and Glimmer vanished. She let out a long breath. _I’m sorry, guys,_ she thought. Her last ounce of strength spent, she collapsed to the ground and let the darkness take her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glimmer appeared at the clearing and gasped as she took in the scene. Several of the team were lying on the ground or propped up in a sitting position. Charred lines in the grass spread out from one spot across the entire clearing.

Scorpia, Mermista, and Frosta were the only ones up and about, moving between those who weren’t able.

“Glimmer!” Frosta said. She rushed over. “Glimmer! This is just crazy!”

“What happened?”

“I dunno, I just got here with Mermista and everyone was out.” She hooked a thumb toward Scorpia. “Everyone but Scorpia.”

“It was bad,” Scorpia said. Glimmer, seeing that Scorpia was tending to her father, rushed over to her. “We were...we were waiting for that She-Ra guy to come, like Adora told us to.” Scorpia’s voice was flat and lacked her usual enthusiasm. “Entrapta and Hordak were working on the ship, the rest of us were patrolling, Perfuma got here...and there was this lightning that came out of the ship. It hit everyone. Knocked them all flat. Except for me.” She shrugged. “Lightning powers, go figure.” She sighed. “I...I tried to stop it, but my powers didn’t work on it either.” She dabbed Micah’s forehead with a cloth, deceptively gently despite her large unwieldy claws. “So...this was all I could do until Mermista and Frosta got here to help.”

Glimmer had fallen to her knees and put her hand on her father’s arm. She laid her other hand on Scorpia’s arm. “You did everything you could. This thing was - we weren’t ready.” She turned away and mumbled, “I wasn’t ready.”

Micah murmured and slowly opened his eyes. “Glimmer?” he slurred. “What happened?”

“Dad,” she said. “Dad, I’m so sorry.”

He slowly lifted his hand and rested it on hers. “Are you all right?”

Glimmer tried to answer, but couldn’t. He was lying half-conscious on the ground, but his first concern was for her. Somehow it made her feel worse.

“Hey, Glimmer.” It was Mermista’s voice. She couldn’t bring herself to look away from her father’s face. “I, um, called Bright Moon for a medical team. They said they’re getting some people here now. Most of their people were already heading to Thaymor. Something...happened there too, didn’t it?”

Glimmer nodded. “Yeah.”

Catra’s voice, strained and hoarse, said, “It caught us by surprise. There was nothing we could do.” Catra was leaning hard on Mermista’s shoulder, her fur singed in places and her eyes bloodshot. She started to stumble, but Mermista caught her and propped her up. “Where’s - where’s Adora?”

“Thaymor,” Glimmer said. “The ship...it did the same thing to us there.” She finally turned up from her father’s face, revealing the tears streaming down her face. “I failed. I failed everyone. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t...don’t you do that,” Catra said, coughing. “Feel sorry for yourself later. You’re in charge here, and they all… _we_ all need you right now.”

“But I…” she turned back to her father, whose eyes were closed again. She placed a hand on his cheek. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do.”

“Then be here,” Catra said. “Your people need you.” She turned to Mermista. “Put me down.” Mermista helped her sit on the ground next to Glimmer, before she walked off to help tend to the others. “Look, this was just...it was a disaster. You didn’t ask for it, we didn’t know it would happen. So we just gotta pick ourselves up and make sure it doesn’t happen again.” She placed a hand on Glimmer’s arm. “Look at me, Sparkles. I’m the expert in falling down and getting back up again.”

Glimmer tried to chuckle, but it died somewhere in her throat. “Thanks, Horde Scum.”

Catra smiled a little. “That’s the Queen Glimmer I know.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_“Unable to reach escape velocity. We will need to set down so you can effect repairs to the engines.”_

“Understood,” Adam said. He had the holographic controls up, but Last Resort had not released helm control to him. He reviewed the system statuses, though he couldn’t see much more information than Last Resort had already given him verbally.

_“I have finished reviewing your mission recording. Your performance was unsatisfactory.”_

“What?”

_“You failed to control the situation. You failed to control yourself.”_

“That’s not fair! The experiment was there! You saw her! She disobeyed my orders!”

_“You allowed yourself to become emotional. That is a failing of yours and it must be corrected.”_

“No,” Adam said.

_“Unhelpful speech.”_

“That won’t be necessary. I accept that I failed. I will do better next time.”

_“Do not mistake me for your prior commanders, Prince Adam. I cannot be bargained with. I cannot be intimidated. You will follow my orders…”_

The seat restraints flipped onto him, binding him in place. 

_“...and you will accept my judgment of your performance.”_

Adam struggled against the restraints, in vain. He opened his hand, trying to summon his sword, but a green light from overhead beamed down on him. 

_“You cannot escape your conditioning session via transformation.”_

_Conditioning._ “No…”

_“Unhelpful speech.”_

Searing pain tore through him. He screamed from the bottom of his lungs, without even realizing he was doing it.

The pain stopped. _“You hesitated. If you hesitate you will die. You should have died in that situation_.”

The pain started again, and then stopped. _“What are you?”_

Adam said nothing, bracing for another blast.

_“You will respond.”_

“What?”

The pain returned, worse than before. After what seemed like forever, it stopped. _“What are you?”_

“I - I’m...P-Prince-“

The pain returned again, now twice as intense. Once it stopped, Last Resort said, _“What are you?”_

“I - I’m She-“

This time he felt the pain briefly, but then everything blacked out. He felt like he was falling into a deep, dark hole. Drowning. Cold.

The words kept repeating over and over in his head. Said by various different voices. Last Resort. The experiment. His father. His mother.

_“What are you?”_


	4. Reach

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Princess Alliance has been suffered a significant defeat, but that doesn't mean they have to like it. They get a second chance at capturing Adam, and at settling the score.

Green. Green everywhere. Green, dotted with red flowers.

She loved green. And she loved red.

The air was warm. The sun was bright. And yet the ground felt cool and soft underfoot.

She loved days like this.

Perfuma spread her hands out and twirled. The sound of birds serenaded her solitary dance.

She hadn’t felt this way in a long time. Not since before the war, the blissful times. The times when she could soak in nature without worrying about what was to come next.

She missed this feeling.

The birdsong had a magical quality to it. A quality that made it seem...almost like a choir of voices.

_"Hey Perfuma. How are you doing?”_

A voice. The voice of the universe.

“I’m doing wonderfully,” Perfuma said. “How are you?”

_“Man, you look so - peaceful. Wish I knew what you were thinking. Or if you could hear me.”_

“But I _can_ hear you!” Perfuma said. “It’s so wonderful to hear you!”

_“Anyways, thought you’d like to know everyone made it back okay. Nobody was too badly hurt. Heh, Entrapta woke up on the way back and said it wasn’t the worst electrocution she’d ever had.”_

“I’m so glad to hear that,” Perfuma said, not really understanding what the universe seemed to be telling her.

_“I mean - Emily got a little fried, but I’m sure Entrapta’ll get her fixed up easy.”_

Perfuma found herself in a lone sunbeam. She got down on her knees, then crossed her legs and turned, eyes closed, toward the warming sun.

_“So, anyways, I hope you’re hearing me. I heard people can still hear people talking when they’re - well anyway, I, um...wanted to read you something. Hope it’s okay, I kinda...well it’s something stupid I wrote but I wanna read it anyway.”_

“Read it to me,” Perfuma said. “Your voice touches my very soul.”

_“*ahem* Okay, here goes…”_

Perfuma listened to the Universe reciting its verse to her. The words were...unusual, and it didn’t really make a lot of sense, but the voice was what mattered to her. 

It was the most beautiful thing she’d ever heard.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the Bright Moon infirmary, rows of beds had been set up to care for those injured in the fight against Adam. The sound of hushed speech, the beeping of life monitors, and the footsteps of the medical staff broke the solemn silence of the room.

Scorpia was seated in a too-small chair at the side of the bed in which Perfuma was lying. She had a piece of paper in one claw, the other gently clasped around Perfuma’s limp hand.

“Anyway, that’s it,” she said, tucking the paper away into a pocket. “Ridiculous, I know. I was gonna spend some more time on it, maybe - y’know, get someone to help on it, and give it to you later when it was really ready.” She laughed. “Sorry, this whole poetry thing is still new to me.”

She could swear she saw the corners of Perfuma’s lips curl up ever so slightly.

“So - um, update, I guess. Bow got up a little bit ago. Looked kinda shaken, but he and Glimmer went off somewhere. Catra’s awake too. She’s sitting with Adora. She’s still out. And, Entrapta went off and took Hordak’s bed with her, saying something about his suit. I don’t know - she’s something else, Entrapta is. Oh, and the other ones...I can’t remember their names, the wind and net ones - they’re awake and their beds are next to each other. The beds got pushed together so they could hold hands. That’s...that’s kinda sweet.” She started blushing. “I think that’s everyone. Oh wait - Swift Wind and...that big cat thing of Catra’s...I heard they’re okay. Not really sure where they are. Guess they have a vet or someone here. Makes sense, big castle with lots of animals around.”

She paused, and then sighed. She was babbling on, and while she’d always been pretty good at that, even when she didn’t want to be, it was actually tiring her out. She had a hard time thinking about good things to talk about. There were bad things, a lot of them, but she wasn’t going to make Perfuma feel any better by dwelling on that stuff.

“St...thr…”

Scorpia gasped. That was Perfuma who’d spoken! It was barely a whisper, and her lips had hardly moved, but it was her!

“Perfuma?”

“Un...vssss…”

“Hey, hon. I’m right here.” She touched a pincer to Perfuma’s cheek.

“Un...versssss…” Her eyes were trying to open.

“Perfuma?” She clasped both pincers on Perfuma’s hand, being very careful to mind her strength and the sharpness of her claws. “You...you awake?”

“U...ni...verse…”

“U-universe?” Scorpia said. 

“Talk...t’me…”

“Talk? O-okay, um…” She looked around the room, trying to find some inspiration for a subject to talk about. “Well, um…oh, there was this festival I heard, gonna happen next month. Heard some of the nurses talking about it. It’s for the old queen, Glimmer’s mom. So, once all this Adam business is done, that’ll be a nice thing. I was thinking - ya know...maybe you could teach me to dance or something.”

“S-sounds...wonderful…”

She looked back down. Perfuma’s eyes were open, and while still a little glassy, trained on her. “Hi.”

Scorpia smiled widely, and couldn’t help the tears welling up in her eyes. “Hey.”

“I heard...your voice,” Perfuma said, her voice barely a whisper. “I...had to...come back.”

Scorpia brushed even more brightly. “Well...ya know...shucks…”

Perfuma stared at her for a long moment, realization only slowly setting in. “Something...happened, didn’t it?”

“Don’t worry about that now,” Scorpia said. “You’re here and you’re safe. That’s what’s important.”

Perfuma rolled her head one side to the other, taking in the room. “Infirmary,” she said. 

“Yeah,” Scorpia said. “They’re taking good care of everyone.”

“Everyone?” Perfuma said. “What...what happened? Tell me.”

Scorpia sighed. “That ship, it was...It attacked everyone with some kind of lightning gun. Knocked everyone out. But me, I guess. ‘Cos of my powers, I think. And then it flew off. I guess it...it went after Glimmer and the others. Did the same thing to them, and it just...got away with Adam.” She hung her head. “I couldn’t do anything about it. I tried to help. I tried to be a good friend, but it was just all so fast…”

Perfuma slipped her hand from Scorpia’s and laid it on Scorpia’s cheek. “It wasn’t your fault,” she said. “I’m sure you did everything you could. I believe in you.”

Scorpia smiled wanly, and touched a pincer to Perfuma’s hand. “Thanks, that...helps a lot.”

Further down the row of beds, Catra was sitting beside a bed where Adora was lying asleep. She’d woken up a couple times already, seen Catra sitting there with her, and then gone back to sleep. Glimmer had told Catra what happened - that Adora had healed literally an entire village before the ship’s attack. It was no wonder Adora was out. While Adora didn’t like to admit it, Catra knew just how much strength it took to be She-Ra, especially when using her healing powers. Nobody, not even the almighty Adora, could keep pushing her body indefinitely.

As worried for Adora as she was, she was also furious. Furious at this Adam character who had shown up out of the blue one day to mess up their lives. But also, furious with Adora for being so headstrong, staying behind to heal villagers while Adam, possibly the most powerful enemy they’d ever face next to Horde Prime himself, managed to knock everyone out and get away. If Adora had let someone else be the hero, just this once, maybe she could have ended it already.

She didn’t like having those thoughts. “Unhelpful thoughts” was what her therapist had called them. Of course she couldn’t blame Adora for what happened. Of course she stayed behind to help people, because that’s who she was. If Adora hadn’t been like that, Catra would either still be a slave of Horde Prime, or dead.

Knowing these things, though, didn’t help quell her anger as much as it should have. But - maybe some of that anger was at herself. If she’d been in Adora’s place, and had to choose between helping others and pursuing her enemy, she knew which she would choose. Despite all the growth she’d had over these months, all of what she’d supposed was healing from what her therapist had called a “life filled with trauma”, she couldn’t tell herself that she wouldn’t have left those villagers to possibly die from their injuries.

“Guess that’s why you’re She-Ra and I’m...whatever I am,” Catra muttered.

A device on the stand beside the bed chimed. Catra picked it up and saw Bow’s face on the display. She tapped it.

 _“Hey, Catra,”_ Bow said. _“How are you feeling?”_

“Fine, I guess,” Catra said. She was, in fact, far from fine, but whatever.

_“How’s Adora?”_

“Sleeping,” Catra said. “But, okay, I think.”

 _“That’s - good, I guess,”_ Bow said. _“Listen, can you come to the strategy room? Grab anyone who’s up and around. Glimmer’s...we need to discuss what we’re gonna do next.”_

Catra sighed, then nodded. “Yeah, be there in a bit.” She ended the call, tucked the device in her pocket, and turned back to Adora. She stared for a long moment, and then brought Adora’s hand up to her lips and kissed it. “Don’t sleep in too long, dummy,” she said, “or you’re gonna miss the party.”

She laid Adora’s hand at her side and then stood. There was a twinge in her side, where her hip had hit the ground after the ship had blasted them. There was a hard knot on her hip bone, but she supposed it could have been worse. At least it wasn’t broken - something not all the others could say. She looked around the room. A few of the beds were empty. Bow, Micah, and Juliet had all gotten up and left already, despite the nurses’ protests. Netossa and Spinnerella were lying in their beds, bandaged up and chatting. They’d definitely be sitting this one out.

The only one up and around who wasn’t a nurse was Scorpia, sitting at Perfuma’s. It looked like they were having some kind of conversation. Both were smiling. She didn’t want to interrupt whatever kind of moment they were having, but she knew the longer they waited to make strategy, the more chance of losing track of Adam. She started toward them.

“Hey Scorpia.” Scorpia looked up to see Catra approaching. Likewise, Perfuma turned her head slowly to look at her. 

“Hey Wildcat,” Scorpia said. “You’re looking pretty good.” She started blushing. “I - I mean...not hurt.”

“Hi Catra,” Perfuma said, her voice a bit stronger now but rather hoarse. “How are you doing?”

“Good as I can be, I guess,” Catra said. There was a pregnant pause, before Catra said, “Listen, um - Glimmer needs everyone who’s able to come to the strategy room. Right now that’s just you and me, Scorpia.”

Scorpia opened her mouth to reply, but then closed it again. She looked down at Perfuma. “I - I, um…”

“Go ahead,” Perfuma said. “I’m fine here.”

“You sure? I mean, I’m sure Glimmer will understand if…”

“No,” Perfuma said. “It’s important, or she wouldn’t be asking. Go on, I’ll be fine.”

“Promise?”

“Of course,” Perfuma said with a smile. “I’m just...I think I’ll take a little nap and commune with the universe again.”

“Okay,” Scorpia said. She leaned forward and kissed Perfuma on the forehead, and then stood. Perfuma gave a small smile and then closed her eyes.

Scorpia walked around the bed and followed Catra out of the infirmary and into the hallway. As they walked, Scorpia noticed Catra seemed to be favoring one leg. “You okay there?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Catra said. 

Scorpia started to stay something, but then stopped. She cleared her throat. “How’s Adora?”

“She’s okay. She’s sleeping. She’s not hurt, but just really exhausted after healing all the villagers. In Thaymor, don’t know if you heard about that.”

“I did,” Scorpia said. “So that Adam guy was going after the villagers?”

“It was a distraction,” Catra said. “Had to be. He must’ve figured they’d try to help the villagers before he’d come at them.” She frowned. “He was right.”

Scorpia shook her head. “That...brings up a lot of memories. Not good ones.”

“Yeah.” After another moment of walking in silence, Catra asked, “How’s your arm?”

“My arm?”

“Yeah - it broke, Adora healed you.”

“Oh right,” Scorpia said, rolling her left shoulder. “You know, I totally forgot about it. Now that I’m thinking about it, it’s kinda sore, I guess.”

Catra chuckled. “Just be glad she didn’t bring you back from the dead. _That_ hurt for a while.”

Scorpia stopped. “Wait - you _died_?”

Catra stopped and turned back to her. “Y-yeah, well, I was only mostly dead. After Prime chipped me and Adora and I...y’know, it’s not really important.”

Scorpia opened her mouth to speak, but then shut it again. Catra knew the look Scorpia was giving and braced herself to be scooped up in a big hug...but it never came.

“Well, I’m - glad you’re okay now,” Scorpia said. She started walking again, passing Catra. 

Catra caught back up with her, after the initial surprise. It took her another minute to speak again. “So, you and Flower Princ- uh, Perfuma,” she corrected herself. “You’re...together?”

“Yeah, I guess we are.”

“I’m glad for you.” She paused for a moment. “You...once told me I was a bad friend. You were right. I was a bad...a lot of things. And I - I owe you an apology. Like a big one. I was...I was awful to you. You tried so hard to be a friend to me, and I was...I wasn’t a good person. No,” she said, remembering what her therapist told her, “I was...I was afraid. And I lashed out. I didn't know how to be a good friend but I was good at being a bad one. And - I’m trying to be a better person.” She took a deep breath and released it. “You don’t have to say anything. You don’t have to forgive me, and I’m not...I’m not asking you to. I just wanted to let you know that you didn’t deserve how I treated you, and I’m sorry.”

They continued walking in silence for another few seconds, but suddenly Scorpia spun around and put her arms around her. Catra was surprised not only by the hug, but also by the relative gentleness of it. She could still feel Scorpia’s incredible strength, but it wasn’t crushing as she remembered. Hesitantly, she placed her own arms around Scorpia’s massive torso as far as she could. 

“Thank you,” Scorpia said, finally. “You - got no idea how happy it makes me to hear you say that.”

“Well it’s true,” Catra said. “And also...thanks for sticking by me back then. Even though I didn’t deserve it. I...it really meant a lot to me, even if I didn’t realize it at the time.”

Scorpia pulled away and Catra could see the tears in her eyes. “I’m glad you’re getting the help you needed. And the love. Really, I’m happy for you.”

Catra grinned and blushed. “Thanks.”

They stood like that in awkward silence for what seemed like an hour, before Scorpia said, “We’d, uh, better get to the strategy room. Glimmer’s having a rough time, and I think she needs friends right now too.”

“Yeah,” Catra said, “let’s go be good friends for Glimmer.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the time Scorpia and Catra arrived, Glimmer was pacing, with Bow, Juliet, Frosta, and Mermista looking on. The holographic table that served as the central point for the room was alight with what appeared to be a three-dimensional relief map of most of Etheria.

Glimmer was furious - with herself, and with the situation, and she was having a _very_ hard time containing it.

“I can definitely set the spires up to be scanners,” Bow said. He pointed to several markers on the map, which were highlighted in yellow. “The ones that are still online, I can have them ready by tomorrow morning,” Bow said. “I’ll burn through the night and get the programming done before dawn.”

“You need to sleep,” Glimmer said. 

“I’ll be fine,” Bow said. “And I’ll get Entrapta’s help if I have to.”

Glimmer wanted to protest, to tell Bow that he was still injured. He _was_ injured, and it was her fault. But standing there, with their friends staring at her, and especially with Catra’s earlier words about leadership still fresh in her mind, she kept it to herself.

Glimmer stared at him for a moment, then nodded solemnly. “All right. You’re right. But I’m serious, you need to get rest.”

“I can rest when I’ve got the program done. I’ll put together some instructions so we can send people out to set up the spires that aren’t online. Okay?”

“Okay,” Glimmer said. She glanced over the room. Bow, Juliet, Mermista, and Frosta. And Catra and Scorpia had just joined them. Everyone else was convalescing either in the infirmary, or in their guest quarters. Adora’s absence told her that she, who was known for bouncing back quickly, had been near-impossible to rouse. Glimmer couldn’t help but worry for her, and to further blame herself.

“I heard back from my people. They were able to track the ship after it left the Woods,” Scorpia said. She took a device out of her pocket and plugged it into a slot in the table. The map changed focus, with the Whispering Woods, the Fright Zone, and the surrounding kingdoms in detail. She pointed a pincer to a red dot just over top of the border between the Woods and the Fright Zone. “We managed to pick it up here.” A dotted line extended from the ship, over top of the former industrial zone, and as it curved northeast, the map’s focus shifted toward the Northern Reach, the Kingdom of Snows, and the seas surrounding them. “We lost them over the gulf.”

“I checked with my people,” Frosta said, pointing a finger to the Kingdom of Snows, just southeast of the Northern Reach. She traced a circle and drew a slash across it, highlighting the Kingdom of Snows in red. “Nothing came at us anywhere from the gulf or the Reach.”

“So either he kept going north and ended up circling back down to the Valley of the Lost, where we’ll probably never find him, or he’s in the Northern Reach.” Catra stabbed that section of the map with her finger, and then pulled it down and pinched it open to enlarge it. “That’s a _lot_ of ground to cover.”

“I can get my people to cover the southern quadrant,” Frosta said. “We’ve still got garrisons there from back during the war.”

“I can pull together enough people to hit the east quadrant,” Scorpia said. “As long as people don’t, y’know, freak out at seeing a bunch of old Horde ships crossing the gulf.”

“Probably oughta paint over the Horde symbol first,” Frosta said, with a wink.

“Uh, yeah,” Scorpia said, chuckling uncomfortably.

“It’ll be fine,” Glimmer said. She offered a smile. “Thanks you guys. Mermista?”

“Uh, yeah...we don’t do so well in the cold, so...”

“Oh come on, really?” Frosta said. “You didn’t have any problems when I hosted the Princess Prom!”

Mermista rolled her eyes. “If you’d let me _finish_ , we’re gonna need, like, a lot of warm stuff. Like, coats and stuff. But we’re gonna take the southern quadrant.”

Frosta rolled her eyes. “Fine, whatever. We’ll cover the northern quadrant then.”

“Actually,” Scorpia said, tracing a line from the Fright Zone to the Reach, “makes more sense for you to do the western quadrant. We can land in the north. It’s cold, but we’ve got the gear.”

“We’ll do the east, then,” Glimmer said. “Hopefully that’ll be enough.”

“That’s great,” Catra said, crossing her arms. “Now we have to figure out what we’re gonna do with him when we find him.”

“Agreed,” Glimmer said. “What do we know about him?”

“He’s got all the same powers of She-Ra, that I could see,” Bow said. 

“Lightning worked on him,” Scorpia said. “And those spider things.”

“No _way_ are we getting more of those spider things,” Catra said.

“Uh - s-spiders?” Frosta said. “What...what spiders?”

“Glimmer and the King’s magic worked too,” Bow added, ignoring her. “And wind. I think - just magic in general.”

After an awkward silence, Mermista said, “I really think we oughta have the ones who actually fought him in on this. Just saying.”

“The most important thing,” Glimmer said, “is we have to keep him away from any villages or anywhere else innocent people will be.” She shook her head. “After what he did in Thaymor…”

“Let’s think about this logically,” Catra said. Her hip was really aching now, so she pulled up a chair and sat, her knees to her chest. “He’s got a spaceship, but he didn’t leave the planet.”

“Entrapta and Hordak sabotaged the engines.” Bow said. 

“So there’s two possibilities. He didn’t leave because he couldn’t, or because he didn’t want to.”

“He flew northeast from the Fright Zone over the gulf,” Bow said, slowly. “I remember Entrapta saying there was a jet stream over the gulf that made it hard for a ship to get off planet. We had to fly east over Dryl when we flew Darla the first time.”

“So he went that way on purpose,” Catra said. “Makes sense. The Reach is mostly uninhabited, and doesn’t have that interference field like the Crimson Wastes do.”

“Then he set down to make repairs, must be,” Glimmer said. “However long that will take. Then, he could go anywhere. Even leave Etheria.”

“Um, question,” Scorpia said, raising a pincer. “Suppose he leaves Etheria. Is that really a bad thing?”

“It is if he’s a scout for a First Ones invasion,” Glimmer said. 

“Right,” Bow said. “Plus, there’s probably a lot we can learn from him about the First Ones and stuff. And Adora could maybe learn more about where she came from.”

“He’s not gonna give that stuff up easily,” Catra said. “What do you plan to do, capture him? Interrogate him? I mean, let’s be real: that’s not you guys.”

“I could knock him around a few times!” Frosta said, forming ice fists over her hands.

“That’s not _most_ of you guys,” Catra corrected herself.

“So - you’re saying _you_ would do it?” Mermista said. 

“I…” Catra wasn’t certain. Months ago she would have happily agreed, but now, the idea seemed counter to, everything she was trying to do to become a better person. Despite her anger at what Adam had done. 

“Why would we have to?” Scorpia said. “I mean, you guys are great at convincing people to join you without all the threatening and the violence and stuff. I mean - I joined you, and Catra, boy, joining the Rebellion was the last thing anyone woulda thought she’d do.”

“Thanks,” Catra said through gritted teeth. 

“No problem, Wildcat,” Scorpia said, tapping her on the shoulder. Catra winced as the “friendly” gesture irritated another of her injuries. 

“So we’re just gonna, like, sweet talk a crazy murderous First One with superpowers and a spaceship that can, like, use lightning to knock us all out at once?” Mermista said.

Scorpia shrugged. “Yeah, that about covers it.”

Mermista put a hand to her face. “Am I the only one who thinks there’s something wrong with this plan?”

Glimmer sighed. “All right, look. Every minute we stand here talking about this there’s a chance Adam gets away. We need to get to the Northern Reach while he’s still there.”

“If he was ever there to begin with,” Mermista said.

“Do you have a better idea?”

All eyes turned to Mermista. She rolled her eyes and groaned. “No.”

“Then we know what we need to do right now,” Glimmer said. “Let’s go do it.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Adora was standing on a cliff. Adam was there with her. So was Shadow Weaver. And Light Hope. 

“It’s time for you to accept your destiny, Adora,” Shadow Weaver said. She reached out and stroked Adora’s cheek. Her hand was cold and hard, like metal. “Finally, after all this time.”

“Yes,” Adora said. “I was foolish to think I could escape it.”

“Your time is now, She-Ra,” Light Hope said. She placed a hand on Adora’s shoulder. “Stand and command your troops.”

Adora turned to Adam. “Will you be there with me?”

“Of course, Little Sister,” Adam said. 

Adora nodded. “I’m ready.”

She turned and marched toward the edge of the cliff. As she neared, she could see them all below. Their army. _Her_ army. Hundreds, standing ready to follow her orders.

There were hundreds of She-Ras below, all standing in perfect formation. Each had their swords, identical copies of Adora’s old Sword of Protection, held vertically in front of them in salute. She could see their faces, even over the distance. Adam. Mara. Her own face. Repeated over and over again, as far as she could see.

This was her army. She was proud. She was powerful. She was a _goddess_.

Adam walked up to her side. He was beaming at her. “You see, Adora? They’re here for you. With this army, you will conquer the universe.”

Shadow Weaver appeared at her other side. “Your power is infinite. Your reach is unlimited. Now, my Adora, let us take what is rightfully yours!”

Adora smiled. She then raised a fist over her head. Her army responded by chanting, “Long live the Princess of Power! Long live the Empress of All Existence!”

“Adora, help me!”

Adora turned to see Shadow Weaver, now standing several paces back, with her hand grasped around the throat of a struggling Catra. _Where did she come from?_ “Catra?”

“Adora!” She was thrashing around, hissing and spitting, clawing in vain at Shadow Weaver. She was succeeding at tearing away pieces of Shadow Weaver’s cloak, but revealing only darkness without form underneath. 

“Ignore her,” Shadow Weaver, Adam, and Light Hope all said simultaneously. “She is a distraction.”

“No!” Adora said. “Let her go!”

Shadow Weaver shook her head. Adora tried to lunge at her, but her body wouldn’t work. It was frozen in place. 

“A...dora!” Catra’s voice was strained, coming out only as a strangled squeak.

Shadow Weaver closed her fist, and a sickening crunch filled her ears as Adora watched Catra jerk, and then go limp.

“No!”

Adora gasped and opened her eyes. 

“Adora?” Adora turned her head to see Catra, sitting next to her, staring at her with concern etched into her face.

“C-Catra?” Adora said. She stared at her girlfriend’s face. It took her a moment to re-center her consciousness. The army. Shadow Weaver. That was a dream. This, lying in bed next to the woman she loved...this was real.

Adora realized she was soaked with sweat. The thin gown and the bedsheets underneath were clinging tenaciously to her. Her heart was still pounding.

Catra stroked Adora’s face, brushing a wet strand of hair from in front of her eye. “You all right?”

Adora realized she was breathing heavily and tried to slow it down. “I - yeah, I’m okay. Just had...really bad dream.”

Catra touched Adora’s forehead. It was clammy. “How you feeling?”

“Better,” Adora said, smiling. Then her smile fell as she looked around. The infirmary. Netossa, Spinerella, Perfuma, all lying in beds like hers. “I...remember...we failed, didn’t we?”

“He caught us all by surprise,” Catra said. “The ship hit us all with some kind of lightning and took us all down at once. Next thing I remembered was Scorpia kneeling over me.”

“Scorpia? She wasn’t with you guys?”

“She was, but I guess the ship’s lightning attack didn’t affect her. Maybe something to do with her princess powers.” She chuckled.

Adora didn’t return the laugh. She started staring off into the distance.

“Hey, you with me?” Catra said, placing a hand on her cheek.

“Thaymor,” Adora said. “He - he went in there berserk. He went after the villagers. On purpose. There was so much pain. I - I healed them all...it was so hard...” Her eyes welled.

Catra pulled her close into a hug. Adora squeezed her eyes shut and gripped Catra tightly, burying her face in the nook between Catra’s neck and shoulder. “And I wasn’t...I wasn’t strong enough...”

Catra stroked Adora’s head, being careful not to catch her claws in the wet, tangled knots. 

“Is that what the She-Ra is? Some soldier who just does what he’s told and hurts people?”

“She-Ra’s just a title,” Catra said. “Like Princess, or Force Captain. What you do, who you are - that’s what’s important. And this Adam guy - he’s just a thug. He’s not you; you’re not him. All he is, is another alien who decided to come mess up our lives.”

“I’m an alien too,” Adora said.

“Maybe, but you’re my alien.” Adora laughed a little at that. After a moment more, she pulled away and looked Adora in the eyes. “Anyway, we’ve got a plan to go get that son of a bitch,” Catra said. “Feel up to one more mission?”

“You bet I am,” Adora said, wiping her eyes with her wrist. She felt a surge of energy, pushing herself up off the bed. Catra helped her. “He’s got a lot to answer for.“

“Good,” Catra said. “We need to pack up then. We’re shipping out to the Northern Reach tonight.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Scorpia knocked on the guest room door. There was no answer, but she could hear clanging and a voice from the other side. She took a breath, and opened the door.

“Hey Entrapta, Hordak,” she said. “How you guys doing?”

Entrapta was leaning over a table that had become a makeshift workbench, and seemed not to hear her. Hordak was lying in the bed, apparently asleep. He looked like he had pieces of his armor on his chest and arms, all wired to a machine humming silently against the wall. The parts of his body that weren’t covered looked atrophied and sickly. 

On the floor behind Entrapta she could see Emily. Lights dark, chassis charred from the ship’s lightning attack. Wires were hanging out of her in various places.

Scorpia tapped Entrapta on the shoulder. “Huh?” She turned to Scorpia and flipped up her visor. “Oh...hey, Scorpia.”

“Hey Entrapta,” Scorpia said. “How are you feeling?”

Entrapta sighed. “Oh, fine I guess. I mean, sore and kinda singed, but it’s not the first time I’ve been electrocuted.” She turned away. “Not even the fifth time, now that I think about it.”

“How’s Hordak?”

“His exo-suit got fried. I was able to salvage enough parts to keep him comfortable until my ‘bots get here with one of his spares.”

“That’s good.” Scorpia turned down to Emily. “And...and Emily?”

Entrapta shook her head. “I can’t fix her. Her body’s completely fused.” She pointed to the circuit board lying on the table amidst the other random parts. “I insulated and grounded her core the last time I rebuilt her, but I don’t know if it was enough. I won’t know until I can get her to my lab.” She turned to Hordak. “Once Hordak’s able to travel.”

Scorpia nodded. After a silent pause, she said, “I’m so sorry. I - I...Emily...I shoulda been better at protecting her. She’s been such a great friend.”

“It’s not your fault,” Entrapta said. “I was supposed to disable the ship’s weapons. I thought I _did_ disable them. That ship...I’m gonna have to figure out a way to protect Darla from that weapon.”

“Darla?”

“The best way to fight a ship is with another ship. Darla’s better than she ever was, but I don’t know if she can stand up to all that.”

“Oh right, the other ship. Well, if there’s anything I can do to help.” Scorpia rubbed the back of her head. “I mean, you know, not with the tech stuff, but I can try shooting Darla with my lightning powers. Y’know, to test her defenses and stuff.”

Entrapta gasped. “That’s a great idea!” She grabbed Scorpia by the shoulders. “Do you wanna come to our lab and be our helper?”

“Sure,” Scorpia said. “I mean...I’d like to, but we’re gonna be going up to the Northern Reach to hunt for that Adam guy. That’s where he went, we think.”

“Oh, okay,” Entrapta said. She seemed disappointed. She turned back to her work. 

“Anyway, I - I just wanted to let you know.” After watching Entrapta become engrossed in her work again, Scorpia turned and left. 

She felt terribly for Entrapta, and more than a little guilty. But she didn’t have time to wallow in that. People were counting on her, and she wasn’t going to let them down.

“Princess Scorpia?” A young woman in uniform was waiting for Scorpia as she exited the room. “You called?”

“Yeah...uh…”

“Beryl, Your Highness.”

“Beryl, right. Send a signal back home. Tell them to get as many ships and people ready to go as they can. As soon as we get back to the Fright Zone we’re setting sail for the Northern Reach.”

Beryl snapped a salute, one Scorpia knew well from her life as a Horde soldier. “Right away, Your Highness.” She jogged off.

Scorpia sighed. She supposed that, no matter how much things changed, so many things stayed the same. But she didn’t have time to reflect on all that. She wanted to go visit Perfuma one more time in the infirmary, but then she had to get back to the Fright Zone as quickly as she could, so she could lead her troops on what she just realized was going to be their first big mission.

 _The more things change_ , she thought, _the more they stay the same._

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Ahh,” Scorpia said, standing at the ship’s bow. “Now _this_ is what the doctor ordered! I _love_ being out to sea.” She turned to the hulking, hirsute creature to her right. His face was green, and he was gripping the edge for dear life. “Don’t you, Grizzlor?” She smacked him on the back. His eyes went wide, he leaned over the edge, and retched. “Yeah, I like to look down at the water too.”

“Princess Scorpia!” A soldier, the one Scorpia remembered as Beryl, approached. “Call for you, Your Highness.” She handed Scorpia a device - a rectangular tablet attached to a pair of large, padded handles.

“Thanks, Beryl,” Scorpia said, accepting it. As she walked back toward the ship’s stern with the device, Beryl placed a hand on Grizzlor’s back. He swatted her away.

Scorpia twisted one of the handles, and Bow’s face appeared on the screen _“Hi Scorpia! How are things over there?”_

“Oh we’re just doing great!” Scorpia said. “I forgot how much fun it was to be out in the open sea!”

 _“Glad to hear it,”_ Bow said. _“Glimmer just wanted me to let you know that our fleet’s splitting off here. We’ll keep comms free in case anything happens.”_

“Okay, sounds good,” Scorpia said. “And Bow...thanks. For giving me a chance. For giving _us_ a chance.”

 _“Scorpia, you’re a good princess. And a good friend. We believe in you._ ” Scorpia blushed as Bow’s face disappeared.

There was a chuckle behind her. She turned to see Grizzlor, still a bit green in the face. “You really _have_ changed, haven’t you?”

“So what if I have?” Scorpia said, tucking the communicator into her belt. “Haven’t you?”

Grizzlor shrugged. “Guess so. Gotta do what I gotta do to survive.”

“Well you’ve always been a good leader, and I need you,” Scorpia said. “So keep proving it to me, yeah?”

Grizzlor grimaced, but in a way that Scorpia recognized in the former Force Captain as a relatively close equivalent to smile. “Yes, Your _Highness_.” He laughed out loud, and then marched off, barking orders at the various crew members, who each scrambled to comply.

Scorpia watched him. It had been hard building up a kingdom that had once been decimated by, and then completely occupied by, the Horde. She had learned a lot from her new friends in the Princess Alliance about how to be a good friend, but also how to be a good leader. More than she’d ever learned from the Horde, even in her training to be a Force Captain. What she’d also learned, more by necessity, was that she had to be very open in whom she took into her new fold as Princess of the Fright Zone.

Her court, her guard, her military, consisted almost entirely of former Horde personnel. Few from outside were willing to return there, such was the stigma of the empire Hordak had once built. She’d had to be very open-minded in her judging of these individuals, and it hadn’t been easy. Many had declined her offers, in various colorful ways. Others had jumped at the chance to gain her favor, but given how well she knew them from before, she couldn’t be sure of their sincerity. Finally, she’d settled with individuals who seemed ruthless on the outside, but whom she was certain had good hearts underneath, as the ones to help her rebuild her family’s kingdom.

She could only hope she’d made good judgments. She felt like she had the tendency to look for the best in people, even those who did bad things. Her old crush on Catra had even a major example of that. 

Of course, through this all, she’d had Emily. Emily may have been a robot, but she’d been a loyal ally. And a good friend. Thinking about Emily, Scorpia had to stop walking. She leaned against a bulkhead, crossing her arms. She had to hope that Entrapta could somehow bring her back. Emily had been the one to help Scorpia keep everything straight, keep organized. There was a definite hole in her nascent court, and in her heart, with Emily gone.

Never in her life could she have imagined feeling so close to a robot.

She hugged herself briefly. She wished she had asked Perfuma to come with her. Even though she knew Perfuma was still recovering, and needed to be in her kingdom to help them defend it in case Adam somehow turned up there. She didn’t really feel close to anyone under her command. She’d never felt the connection as she had with Catra. Or Lonnie. Or her lizard friend, whose name she couldn’t remember. Even Kyle. She sighed. She hadn’t even seen them since she and Glimmer had infiltrated the Horde after her defection, when Lonnie and her friends abandoned the Horde.

She felt lonely. After how welcome the princesses had helped her feel, after the years of being kept at arm’s length by her peers, it was hard to feel alone like this again.

But she didn’t have time for that. She had a job to do...and if there was one thing she knew she could do, it was to get the job done. 

She took a deep breath and stood up straight. “Beryl!” The red headed yeoman rushed to her side. “Tell the fleet we’re gonna turn south and go around the peninsula!”

“Umm...Your Highness...the fleet already has the navigation plan. And...um, we’ll be turning north. In about…” she checked a device on her wrist. “25 minutes.”

Scorpia paused. “Okay then! Go do...what we already planned to do!” She marched toward the bridge, where the reptilian former Force Captain Artiss was standing with their arms crossed behind their back. “Captain Artiss!”

“Hmm?” Artiss growled.

“What’s the fleet’s status?”

Artiss gave her a sidelong glance. “We’re 22 minutes from turning north toward our landing point, and about 2 hours 30 minutes from the landing point. The fleet is in good shape. Crews are performing as expected, and landing teams are on standby.”

Scorpia nodded. “Good. Excellent.” She paused. “So - is there...um...anything that needs my attention?”

“Your people know what they need to do,” Artiss said. “They will perform exceptionally.” 

“Good, glad to hear it! Come get me when...it’s time to do something!”

Artiss nodded. “Understood, Your Highness. We will show those Rebellion scum how it’s really done.”

Scorpia stared at Artiss. She had heard those kinds of words from her people, from other crew members on this very voyage, but from her Fleet Captain, they were especially worrisome.

Scorpia stood there staring at them for a moment longer. She could tell Artiss was trying not to look at her, and while their face was hard to read, she got the feeling her presence was annoying them. “Good...then.” She left the helm and descended the gangway to the lower deck. The corridor was short, and her cabin was at the end, at the aft end of the ship. Cramped and lacking in frills, it was still very much a Horde ship captain’s cabin, but it afforded her privacy, which was all she really needed at the moment.

She shut the door behind her, sat on the bunk, covered her face with her pincers, and groaned. This was the worst time to have doubts, but she couldn’t help it. Since she first took over the Fright Zone she’d heard off-color remarks from her people about working with their former enemies. One joke in particular, an especially vulgar one about the number of Princesses it took to replace a light bar, was cemented to the back of her mind.

There had been enough tension with the other fleets’ crews when they were setting sail, but what would happen once they met on the battlefield? Would she lose them to their old prejudices? Would this mission fail because she’d failed as a leader?

She pulled the communicator out from her belt. The screen and buttons of normal communicators were far too tiny for her to use. Bow had solved that problem and invented a new communicator, this one, with oversized handles not just for her to easily grasp, but that also worked as controls. It really cemented the idea that she had made some real friends, and it made her happy to think about even at times like this.

She clicked in one stick, and rotated the other until what she wanted was on the screen. She clicked the first stick again, and a picture of Perfuma, smiling and winking, appeared onscreen.

The device chimed 2, 3 times, until the glamorous, staged photo of Perfuma was replaced by one with her looking a bit haggard, her eyes slightly bloodshot and her luscious blonde hair frayed and sticking out in strands. Despite that, she was absolutely gorgeous, and seeing her even on the tiny screen warmed Scorpia’s heart. 

_“Oh, hey Scorpia!”_ Perfuma said. Her voice was still a bit hoarse, but much better than it had been when Scorpia last saw her in Bright Moon’s infirmary. _“How’s the big mission going?”_

“Oh, well, you know, it’s...going,” Scorpia said, forcing a grin. "How you feeling?”

 _“I’m...I’m, um...better_ ,” Perfuma said. Scorpia noted that her skin, usually glowing and tanned, was a tad pale, and there were dark circles under her eyes. _“I’ve been, um, sleeping a lot, and it’s been cleansing.”_

“That’s good,” Scorpia said. She looked away.

_“What’s wrong, sweetie?”_

“Oh, well...I’ve been thinking. I volunteered to take us on this mission. Take my people. And they’re good people. But not really the - nicest, you know? A lot are former Horde, and - well, they’re not too thrilled with going on a Princess Council mission, you know? And...I can kinda understand it. I’ve heard folks on the other teams saying some not so nice stuff about us, and our people are talking about it too. Mostly when they think I can’t hear them. But not always.”

 _“We were at war a long time,”_ Perfuma said. _“It takes time to heal. But maybe them all working together on this mission will help that.”_

“Hope so,” Scorpia said.

The call stayed silent for a moment, until finally Perfuma said, _“What’s wrong?”_

“Huh? Oh, um...just thinking. About being a leader. And...thinking I’m not really cut out for it.”

_“What do you mean? Of course you’re a great leader!”_

Scorpia laughed. “Yeah, I appreciate that but...I don’t...I’m not feeling it. I mean, yeah, I was a Force Captain, the Horde trained me and all that, but...I was never really good at it. Even when I was in charge, I had someone telling me what needed to get done.” She chuckled. “Lonnie was really good at that. Wish she were around.”

 _“Honey, the mark of a good leader is knowing when to delegate, and when to listen to your people. You’re a_ great _listener.”_

“Yeah, I guess, but...I should at least know when something needs to be done, right? And not freeze up when...things go bad.”

“ _Scorpia_?”

Scorpia sighed. “I can’t stop thinking about...about what happened the other day. To everyone. That ship, it - it attacked everyone. I wasn’t fast enough to stop it. I was the last one standing. I couldn’t protect anyone. I couldn’t…” She looked away. “I couldn’t protect you. You, Catra, Entrapta...all the people I care about and I couldn’t do anything.”

 _“Oh, Scorpia,”_ Perfuma sounded on the verge of tears. _“It wasn’t your fault. None of it. The ship, the She-Ra...it happened to all of us at the same time. Nobody was ready. But what you did afterward...that’s what counts. You tried to fight it, even though it was immune to your powers. Then you took care of us all until help arrived. Look at me.”_ She paused while Scorpia looked back at the screen, tears rimming her eyes. _“You sat with me when I was in the infirmary. You helped me wake up, helped me get well enough to come back to Plumeria. If you could have stayed with me here, I know you would have, because that’s just who you are. You care. You have the biggest heart of anyone I know. And you’re so, so strong. Stronger than you ever thought you were.”_

“Th-thanks,” Scorpia said, blushing. “But...what if it happens again? I’ve got a hundred people here now. What if the ship does the same thing to them? Or worse? What if...what if people actually _die_ while I’m in charge? It’d be my fault. And...I’m not even sure they believe in me. Not that I blame them for-“

 _“No, stop that!”_ Perfuma said. She coughed a couple times. _“You took a kingdom in ruins and brought it back. You gave people a home. You gave hope to people, and you stood up for them. Remember back at the first Council meeting, when you fought for the former Horde members? People remember that. Word got around. People respect you. You earned their respect. You_ deserve _their respect.”_ She coughed a couple more times. _“I saw it in you from that first night in Bright Moon, when you came to us for help. And you remember what I told you? All that stuff the Horde taught you about not having self-confidence - it was wrong. You stood up to that and proved it all wrong. And I know your people believe in you. They wouldn’t have volunteered to serve under you if they hadn’t.”_

Scorpia blinked. All of that - Perfuma was right. She _did_ stand up for her people - even when she spent the rest of that meeting fumbling through her reports and nervous out of her skull. When she felt self-confident, when she felt passionate, she _had_ been able to do great things. Connecting with her runestone, fighting off an army of chipped civilians so her friends could escape...even _singing on stage_.

 _“Here’s what I want you to do,”_ Perfuma said. _“When you land, get everyone together and give them a good pep talk.”_

“A - pep talk?”

_“Yes, you know, tell them you believe in them and you trust them. That you want them coming home safe. Get them excited and give them self-confidence.”_

“Oh... _that_ kind of talk,” Scorpia said. “We never got any of those in the Horde.” She laughed. “Might catch ‘em all off guard.”

_“Maybe, but it will help them. And it will help you too.”_

“That’s all good stuff, gimme a sec.” She set the communicator up in her lap and then snatched up a pad of paper and a pen. “You believe in them...you trust them...come home safe…” She held the pad to her chest. “Thank you. You - I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

 _“You’ve got this,”_ Perfuma said. _“I believe in you.”_ She kissed a finger and touched it to the camera on her device. Scorpia blushed, and blew a kiss back.

“Thanks. Go get some rest now. You’ve been - you’re just the best. And I’m gonna be back soon. Promise.”

_“I know you will, and I’ll be waiting.”_

Perfuma’s image disappeared, replaced with the words “Call ended.”

Scorpia laid back on the bunk, pad pressed to her chest, and sighed. “I can do this,” she said. “I can do this.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Ugghhh, I _hate_ the cold!” Mermista groaned. She was huddled in a corner of the ship, clutching herself tightly. She was wrapped up in 2 layers of coats, 3 scarves, and a massive pair of mittens. And it still wasn’t enough. 

“Oh, my dear,” Sea Hawk said, jogging over from his perch at the bow. “This is the height of adventure!” He pointed to the air. “Sailing in the ice cold air, on the ice cold ocean...” He pulled a cup from underneath his coat. “And sipping an ice cold tea! What could be more invigorating?” He turned to Mermista, who was glaring at him. “Why, doing it all with my glorious Princess Love, of course!”

“You’re, like, _way_ too cheerful sometimes. Know that?”

“It’s who I am!” Sea Hawk leaped in the air, hooked a hand around the ship’s mast, and spun around it. As he did, he started to sing:

“Ohhhh! I am Sea Hawk, I am, I am. If you're looking for adventure, then I’m your man. If you want to ride on the waves of-“

“Stop!” Mermista ordered. Sea Hawk stopped singing abruptly, his hand slipped from the mast, and he fell hard to the deck. True to form, Sea Hawk rolled over to lounge, facing Mermista. “Ughh, it’s too cold for you to be so cheerful!”

“What you need, my dear, is a hot drink!” He clapped his hands together. “Butler!” A guard poked his head from around the corner of the cabin. “Kindly fetch our Highness a cup of hot chocolate!”

“We don’t have hot chocolate,” the guard said.

“Ah, well...hot tea then!”

The guard rolled his eyes and then disappeared behind the cabin. 

“See, my love? Cheer is but a cup of warmth away.”

Mermista wanted to give a sarcastic reply, but her teeth were chattering too hard.

Sea Hawk leaped back up to his feet, danced to the ship’s bow, and struck a dramatic pose. He pointed forward. “Onward, to a polar adventure!”

The guard returned moments later with a steaming cup. He knelt down and handed it to her. “Here you are, Your Highness.”

“Ohhh, thank you,” Mermista said. She took it in her mittened hands, took a long sip, and then cradled it under her chin. She sighed in relief.

The guard continued, “Also, the captain wanted me to inform you we’re splitting off from the Bright Moon and Fright Zone fleets now, and should reach our landing point within the hour.”

“About time,” Mermista said. “This waiting around is sooooo boring.”

“Indeed, Your Highness,” the guard said, before excusing himself and walking away.

Mermista allowed the tea to warm her for a while longer, and then stood and joined Sea Hawk at the bow. “So listen - what took you so long to get to Bright Moon anyway? You said you were right behind me after we got Bow’s call.”

“Funny story, that,” Sea Hawk said. “You see, I-”

“Short version, please.”

“Of course, love!” Sea Hawk cleared his throat and began to sing. “Ohhhhhh, it was a-”

“And no shanties!”

“Oh. Well then.” He coughed. “I _was_ right behind you, but then I ran into a fellow in a dinghy who needed my help. Naturally, being the heroic rogue I am, I took them onboard and ferried them double time toward Seaworthy.”

“Ugh, really? Our friends needed us and you took a _side trip_?”

“Well...it was supposed to be a quick trip. I opened the throttle on the Dragon’s Daughter VIII and shot like a bullet toward Seaworthy! But before we made it, my lovely boat was destroyed tragically by fire. We had to swim the shark-infested waters the rest of the way! It was a long way, but with my guidance we made it unscathed.”

“You’re kidding,” Mermista said. “You set fire to your boat while you were _still out to sea_?”

“No, you see, that’s the beauty of it. _I_ didn’t set it on fire! My new friend did! It was _glorious_!” Mermista groaned, but he continued. “They were quite the handsome rogue - almost as roguishly handsome as I am! In a reptilian, shape-shifty sort of way, that is.”

Mermista stared at him. “Are you _serious_? Double Trouble burned down your ship?”

“Ah, yes! I knew I’d seen them before! Honestly the tail and the heels should have given it away, but they were just so enthusiastic! They wanted to learn all they could about good old Sea Hawk!” Sea Hawk cradled his chin in the crook between his thumb and forefinger. “Of course, setting fire to boats is what I do best, next to timely rescues!”

Mermista covered her face with her mittened hands. “You were _late_.”

“Ah, well...nobody’s...perfect?”

Mermista groaned again. “Are we there yet?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Adora stood on the ship’s deck, leaning over the railing. She felt much better after her long sleep, but she didn’t want to risk running out of energy again. That was why, unlike their last trip to the Northern Reach, she had opted for warm winter gear rather than maintaining her She-Ra form to fend off the cold. 

For this entire trip, she didn’t have much to do. Bow was busy coordinating communications between the fleets, Glimmer was consulting with General Juliet and the fleet admiral on the landing and deployment logistics, and Catra was below decks in their shared bunk, trying to sleep and stave off seasickness. Adora’s fidgeting had been keeping Catra from resting, so she’d been more or less evicted to the deck.

This left Adora with nothing to do but wait, and think. She really wasn’t good at just sitting around and thinking. She wanted to be doing _something_.

Glimmer had invited her to the strategy session, but she’d declined. Even though they had gotten past the power struggle that had grown between them earlier this year, Adora made a conscious effort to not step on her best friend’s toes when it came to fulfilling her role as leader. 

Right now, though, she would much rather be in there with them than out here.. 

So many things swirled around her mind. How Adam had gone from being some kind of soldier to being an almost out-of-control monster, who attacked innocent civilians on purpose. An old Horde tactic that she would, until recently, never have expected a She-Ra to stoop to.

How he kept referring to her as “soldier”, as if she’d been conscripted, at birth, into some ancient army. Was that what being the She-Ra was? A soldier? She remembered a playback of Mara and Light Hope, where Light Hope had threatened to report Mara to “her superiors”. Even with Mara’s compassion, her love for Etheria and all Etherians...did it all come down to her being a deserter? Like Adora?

And then the other thing. “Experiment”. That made no sense to her. She wondered if it even _had_ to make sense - except that he’d kept saying it as if it were significant. Maybe he meant the experiment of sending her through the portal to Despondos as an infant? If so, it seemed to be a real stretch.

She wasn’t sure, and probably wouldn’t be until she had a chance to ask Adam. _If_ she had a chance to ask Adam. He hadn’t been forthcoming, even in the moments when he wasn’t overtly hostile.

And on top of that - the strange dream she’d had the other day. Hundreds of She-Ras, copies of her and Adam and Mara, all pledging fealty to her. She’d had nightmares before, and some had left her with a really weird feeling long after waking up, but this one was still stuck with her. Had it actually meant anything? Or was it just a jumbled-up mess of recent events and her own anxieties?

“Ugh,” she said, covering her face in her hands. She _hated_ sitting around and thinking. Pushing herself off the railing, she started wandering the flagship’s deck, looking for any sort of distraction.

Crew members were running back and forth, caught up in the various sundry duties involved in running a ship at sea. There were a lot of faces she recognized, and some of them greeted her as they passed, but they were obviously too busy to stop and chat. Most of the Bright Moon troops had gotten past their hero worship of her, and she was glad for it. It had made her feel larger than life, as if she were one and alone among a world of strangers. 

Right now she just felt like an extra wheel, in the way and keeping the others from doing their job of keeping everything moving forward.

When she reached the gangway near amidships, she descended almost absently, leaving the chill wind above for the stationary, semi-chilliness of the enclosed corridors below.

That was where she found Bow, pacing back and forth, focused on his tracker pad. She caught up to him. “Hey Bow,” she said. “How’s, um, how’s it going?”

“Oh hey, Adora,” Bow said, not looking up. “Trying to sync up with the Snow Kingdom spire. Some kind of weird interference though.” He tapped the corner of his pad. “My pad’s been acting weird.”

“Oh. You, uh - do you think... _he’s_ got something to do with that?”

“Could be.” He glanced up at her. “Sorry, I - can’t talk right now. Trying to get this thing working before we land.”

“Sure, sure. No problem.” She left him to his tinkering and pacing, and headed toward the stern of the ship.

She passed the closed door to the captain’s cabin, through which she could hear Glimmer, Juliet, and the fleet admiral’s voices. A Bright Moon guard was standing vigil at the door. Adora stood there for a moment, and the guard reached for the door handle. “No, no,” Adora said. “Um...never mind. Don’t wanna bother them.”

The guard nodded and returned to her attention stance. “Understood, ma’am.”

Adora skulked past the door toward the starboard bunks, but stopped when she reached the doorway. She could just barely hear the breathing and murmuring of the night shift crew, and felt what seemed like a wall of heat at the threshold. She peeked through the doorway and saw Catra sitting upright on a bunk at the far end, back to her, leaning forward. She stepped in and made her way as quietly as possible to the end of the row. “Hey, Catra.”

Catra glanced back at her. Adora could tell from Catra’s red-rimmed eyes that she was still a bit under the weather. “Hey. We almost there?”

“No, just...checking on you.” She walked around the bunk and sat down next to Catra.

“I’m doing better,” Catra said. “Never really got the hang of sailing.”

“Kinda weird that it’s just boats on the water that’s the problem,” Adora said. “You always seemed to be fine on skiffs.”

Catra tilted her head. “Um...the _water’s_ the problem, dummy.”

“Oh, oh right,” Adora said. She placed her hand on Catra’s and their fingers interlaced.

“Your hands are freezing,” Catra said.

“Sorry,” Adora said. “Been up on deck for a while.”

“Nah, feels kinda nice, actually.” She curled up onto Adora’s lap and took both Adora’s hands, placing them onto her bare arms. “They got the heater working overtime in here.”

“Not everyone has their own built-in fur coat,” Adora said, stroking Catra’s arms. The warmth felt nice on her hands, and Catra’s purring felt wonderful in her lap.

“Sucks to be them,” Catra said.

They sat like that in silence for a while. Adora’s mind was still whirling with thoughts, but Catra’s presence soothed her anxiety a little bit.

“So...what are we gonna do with that Adam guy?” Catra said.

“I honestly don’t know,” Adora said. “Try to capture him again, I guess. Just be better at it this time.”

“Not gonna be easy,” Catra said. “Even without that ship there to lightning-shock us all.” 

“Bow said he had an idea on that. Wouldn’t talk about it, not sure why. Probably because he’s doing like a million things right now.”

“He didn’t take much time to rest up after - _that_.” Catra said. “That can’t be helping.”

“You didn’t either,” Adora said.

“I’m a fast healer,” Catra said. “Gotta be when you have a bitch like Shadow Weaver punishing you every other day.”

Adora gave a quick, rueful chuckle. As she and Catra had gotten closer, after the war, and Catra had finally begun opening up to her, Adora learned just how badly Shadow Weaver treated Catra, especially when Adora wasn’t around. The abuse Catra suffered, above and beyond anything most children in the Horde were subjected to. And the things Catra said her therapist told her - it all made her feel incredibly guilty. It all happened practically right in front of Adora. She didn’t remember much of it; despite the things she _had_ witnessed, there was a part of her that made her not want to believe that Shadow Weaver had been _that_ horrible to Catra. That Shadow Weaver had done such terrible things to Catra.

But Catra had no reason to lie to her. No reason to exaggerate, not about this. And even if she were exaggerating, Adora only wanted to be supportive of her. She loved Catra. And that made Catra’s jokes about her abusive childhood sting all the more. 

“You always bounced back whenever I kicked your ass,” Adora said, trying to lighten the mood.

Catra laughed. “You had to become a magical super-warrior and gang up on me with a bunch of magical princesses to finally kick my ass.”

“Can’t win with force, win with strategy,” Adora said.

“Strategy,” Catra said. “Strategy.” She sat up. “Right, we needed to talk strategy. We kind of covered this back in Bright Moon, before you woke up, but what do we know about Adam? Like, his weaknesses?”

Adora raised her eyebrows. “Weaknesses? Well...um...magic seemed to work. Bow’s binding arrows. Scorpia’s powers seemed to hit him pretty hard. Um...”

“Not just attacks. Like...things we can use to get inside his head. ’Cos that’s how you take on a stronger opponent, right?”

 _Something you were really good at when you were fighting me_ , Adora thought, a bit darkly. “Well, he seemed to be really stuck on some kind of military formality. As soon as he knew I was She-Ra he started treating me like - he called me a ‘soldier’ and started giving me orders. Like he was expecting I’d follow them.”

“I’d say that’s gone out the window by now,” Catra said.

“But,” Adora continued, “he seemed to get really upset when I refused to give him my sword back at the Beacon. Flustered. And then he just suddenly attacked me. Said it was ‘punishment’ for insubordination.”

“Did he lose control?” Catra said.

“No, he...” she trailed off. “He did throw a tantrum, actually. Punching the wall, shouting. It’s...it’s kind of weird. He’d just injured me at that point. He could have taken me out if he wanted to. But he didn’t. Just beat up on the wall, until the floor fell out from under us and we landed on you guys.”

“Did you say something to him?” Catra said. “Do something?”

“I - I told him I wasn’t a soldier anymore. That I destroyed the sword, chose my own destiny. I...I guess he didn’t like that?”

Catra thought for a moment. “Anything else?”

“Um - he’d just slashed me. Really bad, on my side.” She turned and pointed to it. “It healed almost immediately, but I was pretending I was still hurt. That’s when he stopped attacking me.”

“Huh.”

“What?”

“You told me he attacked those villagers. Didn’t seem to care about hurting them. But he stopped when you were injured. Like - you’re important to him, maybe?”

“I...that’s a really good point,” Adora said. “But why? He wanted Light Hope, but she was destroyed. He wanted the sword, but I destroyed it. If he wanted me for something, why did he try to kill me?”

“Maybe he was testing you,” Catra said. “Make sure you’re really...you know, She-Ra.”

“But wouldn’t that just make me more dangerous to him?”

“Then he would have gone in for the kill when you were hurt,” Catra said. “Might be why he started beating up the wall instead of you when he was pissed off.”

Adora turned away. “So...if I’m important to him...that’s it!” She shot up to her feet. “Catra, you’re brilliant!”

Catra stood. “Hey, wait just a sec-“

Adora ran off back the way she’d come. Catra followed, though her legs were still a bit rubbery. Her fur prickled when she entered the chilled corridor, but she kept up with Adora until she stopped at the Captain’s quarters.

“I need to talk to them,” Adora said.

“Are you...sure this time, ma’am?” the guard said.

“Yeah, yeah,” Adora said. With a shrug, the guard opened the door and Adora rushed in. 

“Wait, Adora,” Catra said, following her, “we need to talk-“

“Glimmer!” Adora said, as if Catra hadn’t spoken. Glimmer, Juliet, and the fleet admiral looked up from the holographic map they were analyzing. 

“Adora?” Glimmer said. 

“Catra just had a great idea!” Adora said.

“Hold on-“ Catra started.

“We’re gonna use me as bait!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was twilight where they landed. From what Scorpia remembered, it was always twilight in the northern part of the Reach this time of year. It meant they’d be less visible, but there would still be enough light so they wouldn’t need night vision. Of all the times to invade the Northern Reach, this was probably the most ideal.

The Fright Zone ships were anchored a few hundred meters out from the shore, and the landing teams began disembarking their landing craft on the frozen beach. 

Scorpia led the platoon off one of the craft, Grizzlor leading another platoon off an adjacent craft. As soon as all troops were on solid ground, Grizzlor glanced to Scorpia with a raised eyebrow. She nodded, and he shouted out, “Listen up! Our Princess has something she wants to say before we deploy, so zip those lips, get your asses in formation, and open those ear holes up!”

The troops fell into formation in front of Scorpia, with Grizzlor at their head. Scorpia bit the inside of her cheek, and then cleared her throat. “Okay, can everyone hear me?”

Nods and murmurs of agreement answered her.

“Okay, good. So -“ She looked down at the pad of paper she’d brought with her. She had pages and pages of notes scribbled down, all the things she’d thought of to say after her conversation with Perfuma. This part was always the hardest.

“As your...leader, I’m...supposed to be the…” She kept scanning the first page. And then the next one.

There was too much here, and she knew wasn’t good at reading off a piece of paper. She tossed the pad into the snow. “Okay, look. I know this is the first real mission for the Fright Zone Army. A bunch of you are new, but a lot of you were with the Horde Army before. But I want you to know something. This is _not_ the Horde Army, okay? I know a lot of you might feel like you have to throw yourselves at the enemy, and if you don’t, you’ll get punished. Like, bad.”

She started pacing in front of them, taking time to look as many of them in the eye as possible. “That’s not how it’s happening in my - in _our_ army. You’re gonna get orders, and you’re gonna need to follow them. But you’re not gonna get ordered to throw your lives away. This enemy...it’s tough. They took on almost all the Princesses combined and took them out easily. So I don’t want you going in and trying to be heroes. We’re working together with the armies from Bright Moon, Salineas, and the Kingdom of Snows.

“And I know that’s gonna be hard for some of you. They used to be your enemy. They used to be _my_ enemy. But they’re not anymore. They’re our allies. They’re our _friends_. And they’re gonna have our backs. So we’re gonna have their backs. Yeah, I know they’ve said some...not so nice things about us. And we’ve said some not so nice things about them. But that doesn’t change the fact that we’re all fighting for the same thing here.”

She crossed her arms. “Look, this isn’t gonna be easy. But I’m promising you here, right now, that the most important thing to me is that once we’re done here every single one of us will be getting back on these boats and going home, and getting some nice hot meals when we get back home, because it is _so_ dang cold here.”

Amidst some nervous laughter from a few of the troops she continued, “We got a job to do here, and I believe in you. So let’s go do it, and then let’s go home. Everyone got it?”

She was prepared for the silence that followed her speech. She _wasn’t_ prepared for what followed it.

Grizzlor raised his weapon in the air and shouted, “Let’s do it! For Princess Scorpia!”

The rest of the army followed suit, raising their own weapons and cheering. A chant started from the back and worked its way to the front, until every single soldier was repeating it:

“Scor-pi-a! Scor-pi-a! Scor-pi-a!”

She smiled a little, felt herself blush, but forced herself not to look away. 

After letting it continue for a few moments, Scorpia raised a claw in the air. The cheers died down. “All right then, let’s get this moving. Captain Grizzlor, it’s all you!”

Grizzlor began barking orders to the platoon leaders and they began to deploy to their assigned positions, unpacking equipment and preparing weaponry.

After he had finished giving his orders and ensuring they were being carried out, Grizzlor approached Scorpia. “Not a bad speech,” he said.

Scorpia rubbed the back of her head. “Th-thanks,” she said.

“Just don’t let it go to your head, Princess.” He started off toward a snow rover. After a moment, Scorpia followed, and despite Grizzlor’s warning, felt her self-confidence swell to an all-time high.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Further south, Adora and Bow were at the controls of a speeder, leading the Bright Moon scouting squad across the tundra. Catra and Glimmer had stayed behind with the main force to lead them in what would likely be an intense battle.

“Still showing it dead ahead,” Bow said. He zoomed out the map on his tracker pad. “Almost dead center in the Reach. I doubt that was on accident.”

“Put as much frozen waste between us and him,” Adora said. “Smart.”

The screen on his pad glitched, and Bow smacked the corner. “I really need to fix this thing,” he said. “It hasn’t been right since the Woods.”

“Don’t you have a spare?” Adora said.

“I left it on Darla for Entrapta to experiment with. She said she could increase the range if she synced in with Darla’s systems.” He sighed. “Too bad she didn’t get to finish it. Could come in _real_ handy right now.”

“Well, we’ll just do what we do best.” She turned to Bow and smiled. “Improvise.”

Bow smiled back, but then turned back to his pad when it started beeping. “Okay, we’re at the two-klick mark.”

Adora nodded and tapped a control on the speeder’s dashboard. “One-four, copy all.”

_“One-four, copy.”_

_“One-four, copy.”_

_“One-four, we copy.”_

Three of the four speeders that had been tailing them split off, two heading south and one north. Adora brought the speeder to a stop and stepped out. She opened her hand, her sword appeared, and she raised it skyward. “For the honor of Grayskull!”

As Adora transformed, Bow kept his eyes on the pad. The three scout speeders, depicted as blue dots were moving around a dotted circle, at whose center was a red pulsating dot. Each was heading toward a different cluster of dots on the map, one purple, one yellow, and one orange - depicting the scout teams from the other kingdoms - Salineas, Snows, and Fright Zone respectively.

“We are go,” Bow said, moving to the pilot’s seat. “You good from here?”

Adora turned back to him and nodded. “Good luck.” 

“Be careful,” Bow said. “Catra and Glimmer’ll kill me if anything happens to you.”

“I’m always careful,” Adora said, winking. Bow laughed nervously, and then his speeder and the remaining one behind him started off past Adora, hooking to the north.

“Well, time for a little hike,” Adora said. She jumped into the air, and as she landed the soles of her boots morphed into snowshoes. She landed on the surface of the knee-deep snow and began a confident, even pace toward where she hoped Adam and his ship were.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Our scout teams have dropped off She-Ra and are deploying to their designated positions,” reported a soldier to Glimmer.

“Good,” Glimmer said. She nodded to Juliet.

Juliet started giving orders to the squad leaders. Catra, viewing the holographic map projected in front of them, grumbled under her breath.

“What’s wrong?” Glimmer asked.

“Nothing,” Catra growled.

“Doesn’t sound like nothing.”

“I said ‘ _nothing_ ’!” Catra barked out. To Glimmer’s wide-eyed stare, she added, “I - sorry. I’m...I don’t like this plan.”

“I know,” Glimmer said, “but it’s the best one we could come up with.”

“Too many of your - _our_ plans involve Adora going off to face the enemy alone.”

Glimmer put a hand on Catra’s arm. “She’s a big girl. Literally.” She chuckled. “She can take care of herself.”

Catra sighed and shook her head. “Whatever.” Glimmer lingered for a moment, hand still on Catra’s arm. Catra turned to her. “What?”

“N-nothing,” Glimmer said, dropping her arm. “Are the other kingdoms in position?”

“Yeah.” Catra pointed to the clusters of dots at the north, east, and south end of the map. “They’re all confirming ready to go.”

Glimmer nodded. Juliet then returned. “Waiting on your command, My Queen.”

“Let’s do it,” Glimmer said.

Juliet nodded and tapped her earpiece. “Three-six. Three-six.”

Catra tapped her own earpiece. “Three-six. Copy all.”

_“Three-six, copy.”_

_“Three-six...copy.”_

_“Three-six, copy.”_

“We’re go,” Catra said to Glimmer.

Juliet opened the speeder’s throttle and it started forward, along with two dozen speeders of varying types that were surrounding them.

“Here comes the fun part,” Glimmer said.

Catra just grumbled as she kept her eyes on the map, watching for any anomalies. _Be careful, Adora_ , she thought. _Please don’t do anything stupid this time._

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I see it!” Adora whispered, and ducked behind an outcropping of rock. More specifically, she saw Adam - or at least what she was sure was him. She wasn’t sure who else it could be out here in the middle of the frozen waste. She recognized the strawberry blonde hair, and while the build was hidden underneath a bulky overcoat, the height looked very much like that of the person she saw fleeing in the ship the other day.

 _“We’re still getting into position,”_ Bow said over the earpiece. _“Two more minutes.”_

“Copy that,” Adora said.

“I know you’re there,” Adam called out.

Adora stopped. Did he have the ability to sense her?

“Come out and face me.”

 _Crap_ , Adora thought. “Did you guys hear that?”

 _“Careful, Adora! It’s probably a trap,”_ Catra said.

“Come out here now, soldier!” Adam shouted.

Adora clenched her fist. “I’m going out there.”

 _“Wait, we’re not in position!”_ Bow said.

_“Adora, wait for them!”_

“I can’t,” Adora said. “Bow, hurry up and get in position.”

She could hear a growling from Catra, and the start of a curse word, before Catra’s signal cut out.

Adora stepped out from behind the outcropping. “Fine, I’m here.” She stood there, them both staring at each other across the snowy plain. She was surprised he hadn’t changed into his She-Ra form. Even at this distance, she could tell she towered over him in her own She-Ra form. Their size difference was so distinct that it looked like, if she’d wanted to, she could cross the distance in seconds and then snap him in half like a twig.

“Turn your powers off,” Adam said. “I’m giving you a courtesy, and I expect you to return it.”

“No thanks,” Adora said. “I’m not letting my guard down. Especially with that weapon your ship has.”

Adam nodded. “Not so foolish after all.” He started walking toward her, but showed no sign of preparing himself to transform. Adora prepared herself mentally, but did not take any defensive or offensive posture. Not yet.

Adam stopped about three paces away from her. A distance she could cross in an instant if she decided to grab him by the throat and choke him out. She seriously considered doing that.

“So now you’re here,” Adam said. She noted his voice sounded much thinner and a pitch higher than before. “What’s your intention? Surrendering? Or attacking?”

“What’s _yours_?” Adora said. “Why did you come to Etheria? And why didn’t you leave?”

“I came to make contact with your Light Hope,” Adam said. “I came to find out why you failed at your mission.”

“I refused my mission,” Adora said. “And I destroyed your weapon. I told you this. There’s nothing left for your people here.” 

“ _Your_ people too,” Adam said. “No matter how indoctrinated you’ve become here, you are and always will be Eternian.”

“I don’t care where I came from,” Adora said, doing her best to mask her lie. “This is my home. These are my people, and I will fight to protect them. Why don’t you just get on your ship and leave, and never come back?”

“I can’t do that,” Adam said. “Taking control of the Heart of Etheria wasn’t my last mission here.”

“Then what was?”

“Etheria and its magic are too dangerous to leave unchecked. My job is to find a way to destroy the planet.”

Adora stared. “What?”

“And now it’s more important than ever. You’ve sided with the Galactic Horde. I saw the clones. You’re not free, you’re a slave to Horde Prime, even if you can’t see it. And I’m going to do what I have to do to keep Horde Prime or anyone from using this planet’s magic against the rest of the cluster.”

“You’ve got no idea what you’re talking about,” Adora said. “And that’s totally not gonna happen.”

“It is ‘happening’,” Adam said. “My mission is too important for me to let you stop me. I will kill you if I have to. For our people.”

Adora launched herself forward and grabbed at Adam - and she passed right through him.

“What the hell?”

She spun around to see the Adam hologram shimmer. He turned toward her, and for a moment she thought she saw his form change. For an instant, she could have sworn it looked like Light Hope, but then it disappeared. As she was processing this, the ground underneath her suddenly burst out and upward, sending her flying. 

Adam, in his She-Ra form, landed hard in the snow, throwing white powder in all directions. He launched himself at her. Adora flipped onto her feet and brought her sword up just in time to deflect a sword thrust that was aimed directly at her stomach, but Adam’s momentum was in his leading shoulder, which struck her square in the face and threw her backward again.

He started to charge at her again, but then an amplified voice rang out from all directions:

_“Now!”_

The icy air was suddenly filled with voices, emitting various battle cries:

“For Salineas!”

“For our world!”

“For the She-Ra!”

“For Scorpia!”

Dozens of soldiers, guards, and fighters emerged from cover all around, all charging at Adam. They were firing projectiles and magical spells of all kinds at him, and he found himself having to rapidly dodge and jump just to avoid them.

They surrounded Adam, and as Adora noted to their credit, none of them attempted to engage him in close quarters. She could see him trying to unleash his sword energy strikes, but he was getting hit too many times to be able to concentrate on the attack.

He leaped high into the air, in an arc to get out of the circle. Near the peak of his jump, though, he was struck by red lightning, which threw him backward.

“Adora, you okay?” Scorpia held out a pincer and helped Adora to her feet.

“Yeah,” Adora said. “We need to end this quickly, though. While he’s still disoriented.”

“Already on it,” Scorpia said, firing another volley of red lightning in Adam’s direction.

Adam flipped up onto his feet and pushed his way out of the snow that had buried him, in time to see the horde of fighters charging after him, firing their various weapons. He summoned a shield to protect himself, but there were so many that he still felt them sting as they struck his arms and legs outside of its protection.

He summoned up energy to fire an energy beam from his shield, but he was interrupted by something striking him hard from his right. A deluge of hot water slammed into him, sent him flying again, and then surrounded him like a bubble.

Mermista, standing atop a speeder upon which an enormous tank and nozzle had been fitted, was pointing a finger at Adam. “I’m cold and that annoys me, but not as much as _you do_!”

A blue and white blur, riding atop a slide made of ice, sped toward Adam. “And you don’t get to bring your friend-zapping ship into my backyard!” Frosta pointed both hands at Adam, and the sphere of water surrounding him froze solid.

“That’s not gonna hold him long!” Catra shouted. Adora could hear her both in her earpiece and directly behind her. “Whatever you’re gonna do, do it fast!”

As if responding to Catra, an intense whining filled the air, drowning out the shouts of battle. They felt the air begin to crackle around them.

 _“Fire!”_ came Bow’s voice over their earpieces. Suddenly, dozens of arrows arced through the air and struck various points on the ship. Some kind of black cords trailed behind the arrows.

There was a bright flash and lightning crackled from the ship...and was shunted over the dozens of cables connected to the arrows. Not a single person was struck by it.

“Yeah!” Adora shouted. “You’re a genius, Bow!”

Catra, on the other hand, was focused on the sphere of ice containing Adam. Despite Mermista and Frosta continually reinforcing it with more ice, it was quaking and cracking. “Can’t rest now!” She tapped her earpiece. “It’s now or never, Sparkles!”

Behind them, a ways from the main battle, Glimmer appeared next to Bow. He and his team of archers had nocked additional grounding arrows and were preparing to fire.

“Let’s go!” Glimmer said, grabbing Bow’s hand. He dropped the tethered arrow just as they vanished.

Scorpia, standing next to Grizzlor just in front of Adam’s icy prison, had her pincer raised and ready to fire another volley. Grizzlor, likewise, had his oversized rifle trained on the ice sphere. Glimmer and Bow suddenly appeared between them. “Ready, Scorpia?” Glimmer said.

Grizzlor glanced at Glimmer, and then at Scorpia. Scorpia lowered her pincer. “Grizzlor, if I don’t make it back in time, you’re responsible for getting our people home safe. Understood?”

Grizzlor nodded. “Good luck, Your Highness.” For the first time, he didn’t sound like he was being sarcastic when calling her that.

Glimmer took Scorpia’s claw in her hand, and they and Bow vanished.

The icy sphere shook violently and then exploded, sending icy shards in all directions. Frosta did her best to contain them, but some escaped her powers and struck the troops, embedding in both armor and flesh. Cries of pain became interspersed with the shouts of battle.

Adam was glowing bright white, his eyes an intense blue. He cried out and raised his sword, but a fist flew at him from the side and smashed hard into his left temple before he could act. He fell to the ground once more.

An electronic voice suddenly rang out above the battle. _“Intruder alert! Intruder alert!”_ Adora recognized it from earlier as the ship’s voice.

Adam, dazed and still scrambling to get to his feet, turned back to look at the ship - just as one Fright Zone soldier threw their stun baton directly at his face. Adam jerked and spasmed, and for the first time, collapsed flat to the ground.

Adora was upon him immediately. She wrapped her arms around him as soon as the electrical shocks abated. Adam immediately started struggling, and she could feel his immense strength against her own. Her arms were starting to burn from the effort. She screamed out, and then found a new well of strength. It gave her the ability to squeeze her arms together again, easily overpowering Adam, and she even managed to lock her hands together at his front.

As Adam continued struggling she planted her feet in the snow, leaned back, and lifted him fully off the ground. He was thrashing, twisting in her grip, kicking his legs, and throwing his head backward repeatedly, but it felt to her as if he was actually much weaker than before.

As she was holding him, Adora opened her eyes and was surprised at what she saw. She was suddenly towering over everyone - even Adam! All the soldiers seemed to have stopped their attacks and most were staring in awe, or perhaps in _fear_ , at her.

That lapse in concentration allowed Adam to smash the back of his head into her face. There was no pain associated with the blow, but it surprised her enough that her grip loosened, allowing Adam to wiggle free.

He seemed to be falling from her grip in slow motion. Acting almost on instinct, Adora grabbed Adam’s hair, used it as a handle to whip him around, and she flung him hard at his ship.

Adam slammed into the ship’s upper hull, knocking the parked ship backward several meters. Before anyone could react, though, the ship’s engines exploded to life and it pushed itself away from the snowy tundra. Some of the arrows embedded in its hull shook loose during the liftoff, but the others that stayed attached pulled taut at the cables connecting them to the ground. Most of the arrows broke loose from the hull, but a few held tight. Their cables snapped, whipping around like deadly razor-sharp blades.

“ _Duck_!” Adora cried. The force of her single word cracked the ground, creating a depression in the snow and causing all nearby soldiers to drop down just as the deadly cables slashed the air where their heads had been.

The ship shot almost perfectly upward as if fired from a slingshot, with Adam clinging to its upper hull. 

“She-Ra!” She turned to see Juliet running toward her. She had to look down to see the tall woman - and Adora realized again that she was, somehow, a giant. Questions of “how” and “why” started to spin around in her head, and those thoughts seemed to disrupt whatever it was that was keeping her at that size. She shrunk down to her “normal” She-Ra height, and after another moment she shrunk further as her She-Ra form dissolved altogether.

Adora and Juliet stared at each other for a long moment, until Adora finally said, “The - the plan worked.” Adora said. “R-right?”

Juliet nodded slowly. “I’ve already called Princess Entrapta. She’s about 3 minutes out.”

Adora nodded. “Good.” She then collapsed to her knees, her eyes blank and staring out at nothing.

The troops that had been nearby were quickly putting distance from her as they regrouped with their comrades. There were a few cheers of victory, but most voices were in hushed whispers, along with stares in Adora’s direction.

Catra ran up to her and knelt down. “Adora! Are you okay?”

Adora turned in her direction, but her eyes didn’t really focus. Her head was buzzing and there were voices, none of them Catra’s. They were the voices from her nightmare. 

_“Your power is infinite. Your reach is unlimited...”_

_“Your time is now, She-Ra…”_

_“You will conquer the universe…”_

“Adora!” She felt a sudden stinging on her cheek. She blinked a few times, and then realized Catra was there, staring at her.

“W-what?”

Catra grasped her shoulders. “Are you all right?”

“I - I…” Adora started. “I - think so?”

Catra stared into her eyes, concern etched into her features. “What _was_ that?”

Adora shook her head. “I don’t know. It just...happened.” She tilted her head. “What just happened to me?”

“ETA one minute,” Juliet said. “Are you in condition to continue the mission?”

“Just give us a sec,” Catra said. She placed a hand on Adora’s cheek, where it was red both from the cold, and from where she had slapped it. “Adora, if you can’t come-”

“No!” Adora said. She stood up, almost falling over as she did so. Catra helped her stay on her feet. “No, I’m - I’m fine. We have to go after them.” She turned to Juliet. “Don’t worry about me, we’re still on plan. Thanks, everyone did really good work here.”

“Understood,” Juliet said, hesitantly. The whine of Darla’s engines began to fill the air around them. “Good luck. Please, all of you, return home safely.”

Catra turned from Adora, to Juliet, to the approaching ship. “That’s the plan,” she said, squeezing Adora tightly. “That’s the plan.”


End file.
